After several weeks of tough negotiations in Qatar, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement in the punishment war that has already left more than 46,500 Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Government must vote on the agreement and give its final yes for it to come into force.
For Raji Sourani, a Gazan lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, this agreement is special and a symbol of the resistance of his people. He was nearly killed by Israeli bombs on several occasions, fled the Strip and is now eager to return. “We all need this ceasefire. As a Palestinian, we want to stop the genocide, the daily mass killing, the destruction, the displacement and the famine. After 15 months, the Israeli occupation has achieved none of its objectives.”
According to leaks of the details of the agreement published on Tuesday, the first phase of the ceasefire will last 42 days, during which Hamas will release 33 hostages. In exchange, Israeli troops will progressively withdraw from Gaza’s population centers – creating a ‘buffer zone’ along the northern and eastern border -, allowing the return of unarmed Gazans to the north, and releasing Palestinian prisoners (the The number will depend on the number of live hostages, but published figures range from hundreds to a thousand). On the 16th, negotiations will begin on the second phase of the agreement for the release of the rest of the hostages, including the deceased.
Hamas has asked residents in Gaza not to move until the official start of the ceasefire: “The Government Media Office calls on honorable citizens not to move before the official start of the ceasefire and for them to obtain information about the ceasefire schedule from official sources.”
“Israel has not achieved absolute victory and we do not give up. There is no political horizon that will end the conflict, but the Israelis and Americans have realized that we are the stones of the valley and no power on earth can make us leave,” Sourani says of the prospects for long-term peace. .
To understand the effects of the agreement on the future of war, it will be necessary to observe the dynamics on the ground, says Jørgen Jensehaugen, a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) who specializes in the conflict. “The Israeli position is that this is temporary. Hamas’s position is that this should be the end of the war,” says the researcher. “Hamas is in a terrible state, but they will have survived. They will also be able to add support by ensuring the release of so many prisoners,” he adds.
For his part, the lawyer, who was one of the promoters of the case at the International Criminal Court and who is part of South Africa’s legal team in the genocide lawsuit at the International Court of Justice, adds: “The legal fronts will not stop. We must continue towards accountability for criminals. Peace should not contradict justice, which is the guarantee that genocide is not repeated again.”
The Israeli far right, which governs alongside Netanyahu, has been pushing for months to stop any progress. The Minister of National Security, the ultra Itamar Ben-Gvir, threatened on Tuesday to resign and encouraged his colleague, Bezalel Smotrich, the ultra Minister of Finance, to do the same, which would endanger Netanyahu’s government.
“Last year we managed, thanks to our political power, to prevent this agreement from being carried out,” said Ben-Gvir, despite the fact that Israel has always blamed Hamas for not reaching the ceasefire. Now the Israeli government cabinet must give its final yes to the ceasefire agreement by majority for it to come into force, as happened in the brief seven-day pause reached in 2023, the only stoppage in 15 months of brutal war.
Two months ago, Qatar announced its withdrawal as a mediator due to the lack of “will” and “seriousness” of the parties and denounced that the negotiations were being used to “prolong the war.” Trump had just won the elections, Netanyahu had expelled his Defense Minister and the deadline for a US ultimatum to Israel had been met without success.
Donald Trump was pushing for a deal before his inauguration, issuing a threat: “Hell will break out in the Middle East” if the hostages are not returned when he takes office. The movements had already begun and the president-elect even sent his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to meet with Netanyahu and the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, at the end of November. Negotiations officially resumed in early December and five weeks later, the parties have reached an agreement.
“We have an agreement for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released soon. Thank you!” President-elect Trump published minutes after the first news about the agreement.
“We share this news cautiously, with a mix of anticipation, excitement and an unwavering commitment to our cause: it has been announced that all parties have approved an agreement in Doha, the details of which will be released in the coming days,” he noted. the Hostage and Missing Relatives Forum.
“We eagerly await the reunions of families with their loved ones. “The coming weeks will bring a wave of emotions, but one thing remains unchanged: we will stand by the families until the last hostage is returned home,” the statement added.
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