Mediator Qatar announced on Saturday when a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas will take effect the next day, starting final preparations for a ceasefire that much of the world hopes will end 15 months of destruction in Gaza. did.
Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said the agreement should enter into force at 8:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has spent months struggling with the United States and Egypt to reach a deal.
The Israeli government approved the deal early Saturday after several hours of deliberation amid rifts within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition. The approval clears the final hurdle and brings hope to Israelis seeking the return of loved ones and Gazans who have survived one of the heaviest bombing campaigns of the 21st century.
“I feel a mixture of joy, sadness and longing for a new beginning,” said Mariam Moeen Awad, 23, who has been evacuated from her home in northern Gaza six times since the war began. .
Awad and her husband had planned to move into a newly built, fully furnished apartment in November 2023. The war derailed their plans and left the couple stranded on an overcrowded compound, she said, eager to return home “if they still had a home.”
In Israel, authorities are preparing to send dozens of hostages home, unsure whether they will return malnourished or traumatized to death.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech on Saturday night that 33 hostages were released in the first phase of the deal, the first since the ceasefire was approved, and that “the majority are alive.”
He defended the agreement, claiming that Israel had also made significant strategic gains in the past few months, including the killing of top Hamas leaders. “As I promised you, we have changed the face of the Middle East,” he said.
According to Israeli military officials, three reception points have been set up along the Gaza border to receive hostages. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with protocol, said these personnel would include Israeli soldiers, as well as doctors and psychologists.
The release of the hostages is expected to be the first such large-scale exchange since a week-long ceasefire early in the war.
Hagar Mizrahi, a senior Israeli health ministry official, said of the hostages released during the 2023 ceasefire: “Those who were released at that time were already poorly nourished.” “Imagine where they are now, another 400 days later. We are very concerned about this.”
Many of the women, elderly men, and other hostages scheduled for return are being held in Hamas's network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip, where they are held in conditions that are likely to leave them with physical and psychological scars. It is believed that Israeli hospitals are preparing isolated areas where hostages can begin recuperating in privacy.
“Last time, we saw the Red Cross transporting hostages, some of whom ran to their relatives and hugged them,” said the group, which works with the human rights group Hostage Families Forum. said clinical psychologist Einat Yehene. “Given the physical and mental conditions we expect, it won't be the same easy thing this time.”
In return, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be released. The total number of prisoners to be released and their identities were among the many issues involved in negotiating the agreement.
The new agreement also calls for allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza each day, and for negotiations on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area and a permanent end to the war.
These negotiations are likely to be as tough and difficult as the months of negotiations that led to this week's ceasefire agreement. Prime Minister Netanyahu is already facing a revolt within his ruling coalition, with his far-right partners threatening to quit the coalition over their opposition to the deal.
They are calling for war to continue the eradication of Hamas, which led the October 2023 attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took another 250 hostages, starting the war.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also faces pressure from many Israelis who want all the hostages returned, as well as outgoing U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President-elect Donald J. Trump, who want an end to the war.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said in his speech that the deal preserves Israel's right to return to war with Hamas if it wishes. He added that the agreement will allow Israeli forces to remain in a buffer zone along Israel's border with Gaza and the border between Gaza and Egypt, at least in the initial stages.
“If we must return to combat, we will do it in a new way and powerfully,” he said.
Another uncertainty about how the deal will play out is that since the war began, tens of thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of others have been left without homes, clean water, food or medicine. It stems from the chaotic and desolate conditions in the Gaza Strip where they live. .
Israeli military operations have created a power vacuum in large parts of the Gaza Strip, and illegal activity has proven to be a dangerous element in efforts to deliver aid to people in need. In systematic looting, supplies have been repeatedly stripped from trucks, including supplies from 100 trucks carrying UN aid late last year.
Israel has continued its attacks on Gaza since the ceasefire was announced, killing 23 Palestinians and wounding 83 in the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry announced Saturday morning. The ministry says more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, although it does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Once the ceasefire begins, much-needed aid is expected to flow into Gaza. Egypt, which borders the enclave, was ramping up preparations on Friday to deliver aid such as food and tents, according to Egyptian state broadcaster Al-Kahera News.
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