After 15 months of war in Gaza, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement in principle, according to official sources from two of the mediating countries, the United States and Egypt, and from Israel. The Office of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has pointed out after the principle of agreement was revealed that there are still issues to be resolved. The Israeli Government is expected to debate and vote on the proposal on Thursday, so there may still be modifications. Regardless of what happens in the next few hours, these are the details that have emerged so far from the agreement, which is divided into three phases. The first lasts 42 days and begins with the release of hostages. The second would begin to be negotiated on the 16th day of the first, if the agreements progress as agreed. The third phase would be negotiated, in principle, when the second has already begun.
Release of the hostages
During the first phase of the agreement, 33 Israeli hostages will be released, including children, women, female soldiers, men over 50 years old, wounded and sick. In the second, the rest of the living hostages will be released – which includes male soldiers and men under 50 – and finally, the delivery of the bodies of the dead hostages has been planned. Of the 251 hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023, 96 remain inside the Strip. Of them, 34 are confirmed dead, while 117 have escaped alive—only 8 of them in military operations—and 38 bodies have been recovered by the Israeli army. In exchange for the hostages, Israel will release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, which do not include Hamas militants who participated in the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip
The withdrawal will be gradual, although some Israeli military units will remain near the border to guarantee the security of border towns and villages, according to Reuters. Citizens of northern Gaza will be able to return to their homes and a mechanism will be put in place to ensure that there are no weapons in that area. Israel will withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, a road built by Israel in the center of Gaza, which divides it in two. Likewise, the Rafah border crossing, between Egypt and Gaza, will gradually reactivate its activity, allowing the passage of sick or injured people. A significant increase in humanitarian aid in the Strip has also been planned. The agreement reached between Hamas and Israel includes the entry of 600 trucks of humanitarian aid into the Strip each day of the ceasefire, 50 of them with fuel and 300, assigned to the north of the territory, according to Reuters. Before the war, around 500 aid trucks entered every day, according to United Nations data. On the other hand, between January and December 11, 2024, 108 trucks entered per day on average. In past negotiations there has been talk of returning to pre-conflict levels and even sending more.
Who will govern Gaza after the truce?
The future government of Gaza and the reconstruction of the Strip will be discussed during the third phase of the agreement, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources cited by Reuters. At the moment there are important unknowns in this regard, in particular about who will govern the enclave after the war. Israel has assured that it will not allow Hamas to remain in power, and has also rejected the administration of the Strip by the Palestinian National Authority, which governs the West Bank. The Government of Israel has assured on several occasions that they will be the ones to manage the security of Gaza, something that both Hamas and the international community reject. The latter consider that the Gazans themselves should be in charge of managing the enclave. From that point, however, no details are known.
