The Gaza deal is a reality: celebration in the streets, the ceasefire after over 460 days

The agreement

An agreement in three phases, the first two lasting 42 days each, with a ceasefire and the release of the first hostages from the first day. The agreement between Hamas and Israel signed today in Doha should also include a gradual withdrawal of the IDF from the Strip. Hamas, according to the first drafts circulating in the media, should immediately release the first three kidnapped people, "by next Sunday" : in the first phase of the agreement there are 33 hostages (children, women, elderly and sick) who should be freed gradually. After the first three on the first day of the truce, 4 should be able to return home a week later, another three in the following week and the same number on the 21st day. In the last week of the first phase, the release of 14 kidnapped people is then expected.

Among the 33 hostages there are also supposed to be 5 Israeli soldiers in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners, in a ratio of one to 50. Hamas and its allies are still holding 94 people taken away by Israel on October 7: at least 34 of them are dead, according to the Israeli government, although it is feared that the real number is higher. In the hands of Hamas there are also four other hostages, captured since 2014, at least two of whom are dead. Among the 94 hostages taken in October 2023, there are 81 men and 13 women, according to the Israeli prime minister's office. Two are under 5 years old (they are believed to be the Bibas brothers, whose fate is unknown) while 84 are Israeli, eight Thai, one Nepalese and one Tanzanian. Israel has reportedly agreed to release at least a thousand Palestinian prisoners (it could reach up to 1,650 according to some sources and will depend on the number of hostages freed) during the first phase, including about 190 who have served 15-year sentences (about a hundred of them life sentences).

Those accused of killing Israelis will not be released in the West Bank but in the Gaza Strip or abroad (Qatar and Turkey are being discussed), based on agreements with foreign countries. Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the first Intifada who was sentenced to life in prison, will not be freed. The Netanyahu government has also reportedly rejected Hamas's request to have back the body of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader killed last October, while it has reportedly agreed to release a greater number of Palestinian prisoners for the living hostages than for the bodies. The first phase would also exclude the release of militants who participated in the attack on the Nova Festival and the kibbutzim in which around 1,200 people were killed. The agreement would be divided into three phases. On the 16th day after the agreement, talks would begin to define the next phase: in the second, also lasting 42 days, all the remaining male hostages should be released and Israeli forces should withdraw almost completely from the Strip.

And, again, the issue of the restitution of the bodies should be addressed, the delivery of which would be expected in the third phase in which a reconstruction plan and a new government structure should be defined under the supervision of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations. As for the delicate issue of Israel's presence in the Strip, the agreement would provide for a gradual withdrawal from the inhabited centers during the first phase while Palestinian civilians from Gaza will be allowed to return to the north under an umbrella of unspecified "security agreements" (possible a passage adjacent to Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine).

The IDF is expected to remain along the border between Gaza and Egypt, known as the Philadelphia Corridor, which separates the Strip from Egypt's Sinai, maintaining a buffer zone of about 800 meters along the eastern and northern borders during the first phase . Israeli forces are then expected to gradually withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor, which divides the Strip in two and leads to the Mediterranean. The implementation of the agreement will be guaranteed by Qatar, Egypt and the United States and, according to some sources, provides for an international monitoring mechanism. Progress has also been made in ensuring a regular flow of humanitarian aid to the Strip, exhausted by 15 months of war, with an increase in convoys (about 600 trucks a day, including 300 headed north) of international organizations, including the United Nations.

Benyamin Netanyahu, late Wednesday evening in Italy, spoke with Donald Trump and thanked him for his help in promoting the release of the hostages and supporting Israel in ending the suffering of the hostages and their families, the Israeli prime minister's office reported. Netanyahu made it clear "that he is committed to bringing all the hostages home by any means possible " and praised Trump for his words that the US will work to ensure that Gaza never again becomes a haven for terrorism. The prime minister later spoke with Joe Biden, also thanking him for his help in promoting the agreement.

(Online Union)