Sigh of relief over ceasefire deal after prolonged massacre in Gaza

DOHA: Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages being held in Gaza following separate meetings with Qatar’s prime minister, a source briefed on the talks said.

A US official confirmed the deal. Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days, as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to cement an agreement.

On Wednesday, a source close to the talks said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani was “meeting Hamas negotiators in his office for (a) final push” to seal the deal.

A source briefed on the talks later told said: “Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal (was) reached following (the) Qatari PM’s meeting with Hamas negotiators and separately Israeli negotiators in his office”.

Mediator Qatar said Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza starting on Sunday and a hostage and prisoner exchange after 15 months of war.

Thirty-three Israeli hostages will be released in the first phase of the agreement that could become a “permanent ceasefire”, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said.

“The two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal on the prisoner and the hostage swap, and (the mediators) announce a ceasefire in the hopes of reaching a permanent ceasefire between the two sides,” he said.

“We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” the prime minister added.

During the initial, 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel will be released, “including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza and remain positioned on its border to “allow for the swap of prisoners, as well as the swap of remains and the return of the displaced people to their residences”, the prime minister said.

The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be “finalised” during the inital 42 days, he added.

Joint mediators Qatar, the US and Egypt will monitor the ceasefire deal through a body based in Cairo, Sheikh Mohammed said, urging “calm” in Gaza before the agreement comes into force.

“We hope that over the next few days there will not be any aggressions or any military operations,” he said.

There was “a clear mechanism to negotiate phase two and three”, and that the details of the agreements would be published “in the next couple of days, once the details are finalised”, Sheikh Mohammed added.

The announcement comes after months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history, and days ahead of the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, who immediately hailed the deal before it was officially announced by the White House.

“We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released shortly. Thank you!” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

He hailed an ‘epic’ ceasefire deal and claimed credit for an accord that comes days before he is due to be sworn in for his second term. Trump had warned Hamas of “hell to pay” if it did not free the captives before he took office, and envoys from both his incoming administration and Biden’s outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.

“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November,” Trump added in a lengthy second post.

The Republican said his 2024 US election win had “signalled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies.”

The 78-year-old said his national security team would “work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven”.

Trump also signalled he would push for an elusive deal to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He said he would “build upon the momentum of this ceasefire” to expand the Abraham Accords from his first term, which established diplomatic ties between Israel and the Gulf countries of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Israel’s attacks in Gaza had killed 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Among the sticking points in successive rounds of talks had been disagreements over the permanence of any ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the scale of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.

The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to take effect later this month, said it would continue providing much-needed aid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed any post-war role for Hamas in the territory. He said several points in the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal still needed to be resolved, but expected them to be “finalised tonight,” even as news spread that an agreement with Hamas had been reached.

“Several clauses in the framework remain unresolved, and we hope that the details will be finalised tonight,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, thousands of Gazans celebrated Wednesday as news spread that a ceasefire and hostage release deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas, aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in the Palestinian territory.

AFP journalists in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and other areas witnessed people gathering in groups, hugging and taking photos with their mobile phones to mark the announcement.

Elsewhere, Egyptian state media reported Wednesday that coordination was underway to “open the Palestinian Rafah crossing to allow the entry of international aid” into Gaza, citing an Egyptian security source.

Egypt was “preparing to bring in the largest possible amount of aid to the Gaza Strip”, the report said, following news of a ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas.

However, an Israeli air strike killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday, the Ramallah-based ministry of health announced shortly after news broke of a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

The ministry announced that five people had arrived at Jenin’s main hospital “as a result of the occupation’s bombing of Jenin camp”, which had until recently seen intense clashes between Palestinian security forces and armed militants.