The agreement will ease Palestinians’ suffering, but international agencies will struggle to meet the massive need for humanitarian relief.
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We start the World Bulletin’s year with a rare piece of extremely good news: Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, set to come into effect on Sunday. Here are the key terms according to Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who helped broker the deal, as reported by CNN:
“The first phase of the agreement will last for 42 days and include a ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from densely populated areas, the exchange of hostages and prisoners, the exchange of dead bodies and the return of displaced Gazans to their homes.
“Hamas will release 33 hostages in the first phase, including civilian and female soldiers, children, the elderly and the sick in exchange for an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners. Gaza’s wounded will be allowed to leave the enclave to receive treatment, while aid will be allowed into the Strip with hospitals and bakeries undergoing repairs.”
In a press conference this morning, US president Joe Biden said phase two would involve negotiations to bring a permanent end to the war, while phase three would see the start of a major reconstruction plan for Gaza.
Egypt and UN promise to massively ramp up aid
Egypt is currently “preparing to bring in the largest possible amount of aid to the Gaza Strip”, according to state media reports. Under the terms of the deal, 600 truckloads of aid would be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. “Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent,” Reuters reports. The UN has faced enormous challenges and constraints in delivering aid throughout the 15-month war. Secretary general Antonio Guterres said the organisation would do “whatever is humanly possible” to bring more humanitarian relief to Gaza. “We expect our efforts to be matched by other humanitarian actors, the private sector and bilateral initiatives,” he said.
The ceasefire deal still needs to be ratified by the Israeli parliament, which is expected to vote later today.
What changed?
Incoming US president Donald Trump has rushed to claim credit for the ceasefire deal. In a Truth Social post, he said the agreement could only have happened as a result of his “historic” election victory “as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies”.
That may sound like typical Trump bluster, but Israeli government insiders agree that he played a key role in Netanyahu’s decision to make a deal. Following a testy meeting with Trump’s new special envoy to the Middle East, “Netanyahu … suddenly came to recognise precisely where it is that they stand with the new American president,” a columnist for the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth wrote this week. “They came to realise that Trump speaks at dictation pace, and they will never be able to outflank him from the right.”
“Given the shape of the deal, one of the most pressing questions for Netanyahu is why he did not accept a similar agreement on offer as far back as May 2024,” writes Peter Beaumont in the Guardian. “The willingness of Netanyahu to deal at the last moment under pressure from Trump… has not been lost on Israeli commentators.”
“I ask myself where did all the obstacles go?” writes Ben Caspit in the Hebrew daily Ma’ariv. “All the conditions? All the ridiculous spins that were thrown out by the leader and were echoed by his mouthpieces?”