Gaza ceasefire and hostage release to begin Reuters

By Mayan Lubel and Nidal Al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect on Sunday morning, hours after the release of hostages and ending a 15-month war. middle east.

The deal, which followed months of negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, was reached shortly before US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

A three-tier ceasefire will take effect at 0630 GMT on Sunday.

The first phase will last six weeks, during which 33 of the 98 hostages – women, children, men over 50 years old, sick and wounded – will be released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

They include 737 male, female and teenage prisoners, some of whom are members of militant groups convicted of attacks that have killed dozens of Israelis, as well as hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza who have been held since the war began.

Three female hostages are expected to be released Sunday afternoon by the Red Cross, in exchange for 30 prisoners each.

After Sunday’s hostages were released, US President Brett McGurk said the deal called for the release of four more female hostages seven days later, followed by three more hostages every seven days.

US President Joe Biden’s team worked closely with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to push the deal online.

In the run-up to his inauguration, Trump repeatedly warned that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released, and repeated his demands for a speedy deal.

Gaza after war?

But in the absence of a comprehensive agreement on its future after the war, it is unclear what will happen in Gaza, which will require billions of dollars and years of work to rebuild.

And while a cease-fire is intended to end hostilities altogether, it can easily be dissolved.

Hamas, which had controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, survived despite losing its top leadership and thousands of fighters.

Israel has declared that it will not allow Hamas to return to power and has cleared large areas in Gaza. This move is widely seen to be to create a buffer zone that will allow its troops to freely defend against threats in the state.

In Israel, the return of the hostages could ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Oct. 7 security crisis that marked one of the deadliest days in the country’s history.

But if the war against Hamas does not resume, powerful forces within his government have pushed him between Washington’s desire to end the war and his far-right political allies at home.

Dozens of hostages could remain in Gaza if fighting resumes.

MIDDLEAST SHOCKWAVES

Outside Gaza, the fighting sent shockwaves across the region, sparking a war with the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement and bringing Israel into direct conflict with its arch-rival Iran for the first time. They let her in.

After more than a year, the Middle East has changed. Iran, which has spent billions building a network of militant groups around Israel, has seen its “resilience curve” collapse and has been unable to inflict more than minor damage on Israel with two large-scale missile attacks.

Hezbollah, whose massive missile arsenal was once seen as a major threat to Israel, has had its top leaders killed and most of its missiles and military infrastructure destroyed.

After this, the decade-long Assad regime in Syria was overthrown, eliminating another major Iranian ally, leaving the Israeli military without any challenge in the region.

But on the diplomatic side, Israel faces anger and isolation over the death and destruction in Gaza.

Netanyahu faces war crimes and genocide warrants at the International Court of Justice.

Israel has reacted angrily to both cases, dismissing the charges as politically motivated and accusing South Africa, the first ICJ case, and the participating countries of anti-Semitism.

The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli data. Since then, more than 400 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

Israel’s 15-month Gaza campaign has killed nearly 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry figures, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians and have turned its narrow coastline into a wasteland.

Health officials said most of the dead were civilians. Israel says more than a third are fighters.