Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
This is reported by The Times of Israel, citing representatives of the United States and Arab states. The US President-elect Donald Trump confirmed the agreement between Israel and Hamas. And wrote that the hostages will be released "in the near future".
Earlier, Hamas officials confirmed to reporters that their delegation had conveyed its approval of the deal to the mediators. Before that, an Israeli official said that Hamas had agreed to the Qatari negotiatorsʼ proposal, and then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuʼs office said that they had not yet received a response.
Officials representing the Qatari, Egyptian, and the US mediators said the deal was “closer than ever”. The Qatari Foreign Ministry had scheduled a press conference for the evening of January 15 to discuss the results of the talks, but it has been postponed for now.
Negotiations on the agreement lasted for months. It repeatedly came close to being finalized, until at the last moment the parties put forward new demands.
If the deal goes through, it would end the fighting in the Gaza Strip and allow Israel to return its citizens held captive by Hamas. At the same time, Israel would release Palestinian prisoners. It could also ease tensions in the Middle East, where conflicts continue in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
The latest known draft agreement called for a six-week ceasefire, followed by a gradual withdrawal of the IDF from central Gaza. During that time, Hamas is to release 33 Israeli hostages. The second phase would see the release of all hostages, a permanent ceasefire, and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops.
War between Israel and Hamas
The new escalation of the war has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched a massive rocket attack on southern and central Israel, invaded the countryʼs territory and killed 1 195 civilians, and took more than 250 hostages and took them to Gaza. Some of them were released, some have already died. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas claims that more than 46 000 Gazans have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced during the Israeli operation. These figures cannot be confirmed, especially regarding the number of dead. Hamas does not separate civilians from militants in its statistics.
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