Gaza ceasefire deal reached after 15 months of war

The ceasefire will go into effect on Sunday.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani announced the deal on Wednesday during a press conference in Doha.

The Qataris, alongside the Egyptians, helped negotiate the agreement with Israel, while the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald Trump applied pressure on the Israelis.

Trump had warned there would be “hell to pay” if a deal to release the Israeli captives was not sealed by his inauguration on 20 January. Among those captives are US citizens.

The president-elect was quick to take credit for the deal, posting on his TruthSocial platform: “This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans.”

“My National Security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven. We will continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump wrote.

Shortly after, the outgoing president Joe Biden issued his statement taking credit for the deal, insisting that Hamas caused the delay, and not the Israelis.

“I laid out the precise contours of this plan on May 31, 2024, after which it was endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council. It is the result not only of the extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran — but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” Biden said.

“My diplomacy never ceased in their efforts to get this done.”

In June, Hamas announced it had accepted Biden’s deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated he would not agree, despite assertions by Washington at the time that he did.

“We are all waiting for the return of our brothers and sisters,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said shortly after the ceasefire was announced.

He also urged Netanyahu’s security cabinet to get behind the deal.

The Israeli government is expected to vote on the agreement on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Hamas’ acting chief, Khalil al-Hayya, stressed Wednesday that Israel has failed to achieve its goals in Gaza, suggesting that the 16-month-long assault had become a war of attrition that was too politically costly for Tel Aviv.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday stated he hoped the deal would remove significant security and political obstacles that have impeded the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. He added that the UN stands ready to scale up its relief deliveries as the deal requires.

Details of the deal highlighted a six-week initial ceasefire phase which would include the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from northern Gaza and the release of captives held by Hamas and other armed groups in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

The agreement details obtained by Middle East Eye says that 33 Israeli captives held in Gaza will be released as part of the first phase, including nine who are ill or wounded.

Israel will release 1,000 Palestinians detained from 8 October 2023 onwards.

Among the 33 captives will be several men over the age of 50, who will be released in exchange for Palestinians serving life sentences at a ratio of 1:3, and Palestinians serving other sentences at a ratio of 1:27.

Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, who have been held in Gaza since before Israel’s war, will be released in exchange for 60 Palestinian prisoners and 47 Palestinians who were re-arrested after being freed in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal.

Israel will begin to withdraw from the Gaza Strip as part of the first phase, moving eastwards from densely populated areas, including from the Netzarim Corridor and Kuwait roundabout.

The six-kilometre Netzarim Corridor, referred to as the “axis of death” by Palestinians, was established by Israel’s military during the current war. It spans from the Israeli boundary with Gaza City to the Mediterranean Sea and was used by Israeli forces to monitor and control the movement of Palestinians between northern and southern Gaza.

During the summer, Netanyahu declared that under a truce agreement, there would be no Israeli withdrawal from the area.

Israeli troops will retreat to a perimeter 700 metres from the boundary with Gaza, with the exception of five localised points where the perimeter will increase by 400 additional metres, as determined by Israel.

As for the 14km wide Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the entire Gaza border with Egypt, Israel will reduce its forces from the buffer zone during the first phase.

Israel has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, with nearly half being children. A peer-reviewed study published earlier this week by the medical journal The Lancet said that not only is there no inflation in the number of deaths reported in Gaza, but that there is a 41 percent undercount of the dead given the scale of Israel’s attack, and the lack of rescue and recovery equipment and functioning hospitals.

The UN has announed Israel has carried out “acts of genocide,” in Gaza, an assertion also backed by a number of Israeli historians.