Israel and Hamas agreed yesterday to a ceasefire in Gaza for at least four days, to let in aid and free at least 50 hostages held by fighters in the Palestinian enclave in exchange for at least 150 Palestinians jailed in Israel.
The first truce in a near seven-week-old war, reached after mediation by Qatar, was praised around the world as a sign of progress that could ease the suffering of civilians in Israel-besieged Gaza and bring more Israeli captives home. Arab ministers praised the agreement but said it should become a first step toward a full ceasefire.
Israel said the ceasefire could be extended further if more hostages were freed, and a Palestinian source said as many as 100 hostages in total could be released by the end of the month.
Hamas and allied groups captured around 240 hostages when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli towns on October 7. Previously, Hamas had released just four.
Israel has subjected Hamas-ruled Gaza to a siege and relentless bombardment since the 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed, around 40 per cent of them children, according to medical officials in the territory.
The truce was not expected to begin until this morning, and the start time had yet to be officially announced as of last night. An Egyptian security source said mediators sought a start time of 10 am though this still awaited confirmation from the Israelis.
“It’s not going to get all the hostages out, but it does get these first 50 or so, all women and children... We’ll start to see them come start to get released over the next 24 hours or so,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.
The US also hoped that hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks would reach Gaza in the next few days, Kirby said.
“Now, it’s important that all aspects are fully implemented,” US President Joe Biden said in a comment on the deal on X.
The Red Cross will be able to visit any remaining hostages in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Press conference last night.
The 50 hostages would be released over four days at a rate of at least 10 daily, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. The truce could be extended day by day as long as an additional 10 hostages were freed per day, it said. Israel’s justice ministry published a list of 300 names of Palestinian prisoners who could be freed.
Hamas said the initial 50 hostages would be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children imprisoned in Israel. Hundreds of trucks of humanitarian, medical and fuel supplies would enter Gaza, while Israel would halt all air sorties over southern Gaza and maintain a daily six-hour daytime no-fly window in the north, the enclave’s ruling Islamists said.
Qatar’s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed Al Khulaifi, told Reuters the truce meant there would be “no attack whatsoever. No military movements, no expansion, nothing”.
Arab foreign ministers, visiting Britain and France for talks yesterday, said the agreement should be extended.
“Whatever humanitarian access now increases as a result of this hostage deal must remain in place and must be built upon,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in London alongside his Jordanian and Egyptian counterparts.
They are leading a so-called contact group of mostly Muslim countries that are lobbying Israel’s major allies and the UN Security Council to bring about an end to the Gaza war and move towards a permanent solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“That has to be a plan with an endgame, with timelines, with a mechanism for implementation, with guarantees, and the whole world has to be behind it and the US will have to play a leading role,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.
The truce deal is a first small step towards calm in the most violent ruction of the 75-year-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The past seven weeks have shocked the world because of the suffering of civilians on both sides, beginning with the killing of Israeli families in their homes and continuing with devastation rained down on Gaza, home to 2.3 million people.
“What truce can there be after what happened to us? We are all are dead people,” said Mona, a woman in Gaza whose nieces and nephews were among those killed by an Israeli air strike.
“This will not bring back what we lost, will not heal our hearts or make up for the tears we shed.”
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