Hamas and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire deal, pausing the war in Gaza and designed to broker an end to the brutal 15-month conflict, the mediator Qatar has said. The agreement is set to be officially accepted by Israel after a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The announcement on Wednesday night from Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, was made after weeks of negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha. There were intensified efforts in recent days to hammer out the final details after increased pressure on Israel to reach a deal from the US president-elect, Donald Trump, which Sheikh Mohammed acknowledged in his media conference.
“The two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal on the prisoner and the hostage swap, and [the mediators’] announce a ceasefire in the hopes of reaching a permanent ceasefire between the two sides,” he said.
“Both parties should commit totally to all three phrases [of the agreement] to steer away from further bloodshed and steer away escalation in the region.” Sheikh Mohammed added: “We hope this will be the end of a dark chapter of war.”
Immediately afterwards, the US president Joe Biden said that his administration negotiated the deal but that Trump’s team will soon be charged with making sure it is implemented. The incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, joined the White House’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk as the talks came to fruition in Doha, Biden said.
“For the past few days, we have been speaking as one team,” Biden said.
Hamas announced a few hours earlier that it had formally accepted the terms of the deal.
In a statement later on Wednesday, the group’s acting chief, Khalil al-Hayya, said that “Israel failed to achieve its goals in Gaza.”
Even as Israeli airstrikes continued across Gaza, in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the strip, people gathered to celebrate, cheering and dancing on dark streets without power. “Praise be to God, we will be free to live like human beings again soon,” a displaced father of four, Mohammed Azaiza, said.
In Tel Aviv, the mood was more sombre, as protesters in favour of a deal gathered in a demonstration held to remind Israel’s leaders of their position before the cabinet vote.
Maoz Inon, an Israeli peace activist whose parents were killed in the Hamas attack in October 2023 that triggered the war on 7 October, told Al Jazeera: “It’s too late for my parents and thousands of people in Gaza and thousands of Israelis but this is what I’ve been calling for … a deal and the beginning of a peace process. I am happy for all those who will sleep well tonight and go back to their families.”
A first batch of 33 hostages is expected to be released on Sunday in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and wounded people in Gaza will be allowed to leave for medical treatment.
Children, women, including female soldiers, and the over-50s would be freed first, Sheikh Mohammed said. In exchange, Israel would release “a number of Palestinians”. Associated Press reported that 50 Palestinians would be released for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas and 30 for each of other hostages.
In a social media post, Trump said: “We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East … They will be released shortly.”
He claimed the deal “could have only happened as a result of our historic victory in November, as it signalled to the entire world that my administration would seek peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our allies”.
As anticipation of a ceasefire agreement rose earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu and his defence minister, Israel Katz, met one of the leading far-right figures in the coalition, the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. Smotrich has been highly critical of earlier proposed deals with Hamas. His fellow hardline minister Itamar Ben Gvir had asked him to join forces and pull their parties out of the coalition – potentially causing the government to fall – if the deal was agreed.
However, unlike Ben Gvir, public opinion polls suggest Smotrich could face political oblivion in the event of new elections; political analysts say he has more of an incentive to keep the current Netanyahu coalition afloat.
According to an Israeli television report, Smotrich presented Netanyahu with a list of conditions for his support, including a pledge to go back to war if Hamas emerges from the ruins still in control of the Gaza Strip, and to strictly limit the quantity of humanitarian aid allowed in. Israeli media widely reported on Wednesday that the country’s decision-makers were prepared to resume hostilities after the end of the first six-week-long phase.
The deal finalised in Doha largely follows the contours of a truce agreement first set out in May last year.
All fighting is to pause during the first phase, and Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza’s cities to a buffer zone along the edge of the strip, the details of which are to be laid out in maps both sides have now signed off.
About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been displaced from their homes, and should be allowed to move freely between the south and north of the territory, which Israel has cut in half by installing a military corridor. An increased flow of aid is supposed be allowed into Gaza, though the details of how much assistance is unclear.
The second phase is designed to be more comprehensive, with the remaining living hostages sent back and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners freed, alongside a complete Israeli withdrawal from the strip. That is a step Netanyahu had been very reluctant to take until now, and the specifics of this second stage is subject to further negotiations, which are due to start 16 days into the first phase.
The third phase would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza would be launched. Arrangements for future governance of the strip remain hazy.
A group representing some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas during the war welcomed the deal, but called for “a framework that ensures the return of every person held captive”.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement: “ This agreement marks a crucial step, but it must be carried through to completion in all its stages. We will not rest until we see the last hostage back home.”
More than 15 months of war has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, caused a humanitarian catastrophe, and laid waste most of Gaza’s infrastucture. The international court of justice is studying claims that Israel has committed genocide.
About 1,200 Israelis were killed on 7 October 2023, and another 250 taken hostage. One hundred were freed in exchange for 240 women and children held in Israeli jails in a ceasefire deal stuck in November 2023 that collapsed after a week.
