Israel, Hamas reach ceasefire deal to end 15 months of war in Gaza
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani addresses a press conference at the Diwan Annex in Doha, Jan. 15. AFP-Yonhap
Hamas and Israel reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that mediators said would take effect on Sunday and include a release of hostages held there during 15 months of bloodshed that devastated the Palestinian enclave and inflamed the Middle East.
The complex phased accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed. Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
At a news conference in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the ceasefire would take effect on Sunday. Negotiators are working with Israel and Hamas on steps implementing the deal, he said.
"This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity," U.S. President Joe Biden said in Washington.
Despite the breakthrough, residents said Israeli airstrikes continued on Wednesday evening in Gaza, where more than 46,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to local health authorities. Strikes on Gaza City and northern Gaza killed at least 32 people, medics said.
A Palestinian official close to the talks said mediators were trying to get both sides to stop hostilities before the truce starts on Sunday.
Palestinians responded to news of the deal by celebrating in the streets of Gaza, where they have faced severe shortages of food, water, shelter and fuel. In Khan Younis, throngs clogged the streets amid the sounds of horns as they cheered, waved Palestinian flags and danced.
"I am happy. Yes, I am crying, but those are tears of joy," said Ghada, a displaced mother of five.
In Tel Aviv, families of Israeli hostages and their friends rejoiced at the news, saying in a statement they felt "overwhelming joy and relief (about) the agreement to bring our loved ones home."
Israel's acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country's security cabinet and government, with votes slated for Thursday, an Israeli official said.
The accord was expected to win approval despite opposition from some hardliners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who repeated his condemnation of the agreement on Wednesday.
Netanyahu called Biden and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to thank them and said he would visit Washington soon, his office said. In a social media statement announcing the ceasefire, Hamas called the pact "an achievement for our people" and "a turning point."
Famiy members of of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and their supporters react to ceasefire reports during a protest calling for a ceasefire and for the release of the hostages, outside the Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15. EPA-Yonhap
Defusing regional tensions
If successful, the ceasefire will halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza and displaced most of the tiny enclave's pre-war population of 2.3 million.
That in turn could defuse tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has stoked conflict in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between arch regional foes Israel and Iran.
Phase one of the deal entails the release of 33 Israeli hostages, including all women, children and men over 50. Two American hostages, Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen, were among those to be released in the first phase, a source said.
The agreement calls for a surge in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the "priority now must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by this conflict."
Both the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they were preparing to massively scale up their aid operations.
The pact follows months of tortuous, on-off negotiations conducted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and comes just ahead of Trump's presidential inauguration on Monday.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi welcomed the agreement in a post on X as did leaders and officials from Turkey, Britain, the United Nations, Jordan, Germany and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
On his Truth Social media site, Trump said the deal would not have happened if he had not won the U.S. election in November.
Trump's Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was in Qatar along with White House envoys for the talks, and a senior Biden administration official said Witkoff's presence was critical to reaching a deal after 96 hours of intense negotiations.
Biden said that the two teams had "been speaking as one" though Trump's administration will largely handle implementation of the accord.
A man waves Palestinian flags as Palestinians react to news on a ceasefire deal with Israel, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Jan. 15. Reuters-Yonhap
Perilous path ahead
The road ahead is complex, with political minefields likely. Israeli hostage families expressed concern that the accord may not be fully implemented and some hostages may be left behind in Gaza.
Negotiations on implementing the second phase of the deal will begin by the 16th day of phase one, and this stage was expected to include the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The third stage is expected to address the return of all remaining dead bodies and the start of Gaza's reconstruction supervised by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.
Trump said he would use the ceasefire deal as momentum to expand the Abraham Accords - U.S.-backed agreements struck during his first presidency in 2017-2021 that normalised Israel's relations with several Arab countries.
If all goes smoothly, the Palestinians, Arab states and Israel must still agree on a vision for post-war Gaza, a formidable challenge involving security guarantees for Israel and many billions of dollars in investment for reconstruction.
One unanswered question is who will run Gaza after the war.
Israel has rejected any involvement by the Islamist Hamas, which had ruled Gaza since 2007 and is officially sworn to Israel's destruction. But Israel has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli border-area communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting over 250 foreign and Israeli hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's air and ground war in Gaza has since killed over 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people struggling through the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters. (Reuters)