DOHA: Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended West Asia.
The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and came just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump. Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting more than 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and left the narrow coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble, with hundreds of thousands surviving the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters.
As his inauguration approached, Trump repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released. His West Asia envoy Steve Witkoff worked with President Joe Biden’s team to push the deal over the line.
In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the October 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country’s history.
The conflict spread across West Asia, with Iran-backed proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. The deal comes after Israel killed the top leaders of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in assassinations which gave it the upper hand.
Over six weeks, 33 of the nearly 100 hostages are to be reunited with their loved ones after months in in captivity with no contact with the outside world, though it’s unclear if all are alive.
It remained unclear exactly when and how many displaced Palestinians would be able to return to what remains of their homes and whether the agreement would lead to a complete end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza key Hamas demands for releasing the remaining captives.
Many longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction.
Israel announced late Wednesday that Hamas had tried to change agreed-upon understandings for security arrangements along Gaza’s border with Egypt. It strongly rejected the proposals.
Qatar’s prime minister, who has been mediating the talks, met separately with Hamas and Israeli delegations, and shortly afterwards, the dispute was resolved, the Qatari official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes negotiations.
The Hamas official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the matter was resolved.
Israel accused Hamas of trying to make changes to already agreed upon arrangements along Gaza’s border with Egypt and said it strongly rejected the move. Hamas called the claims “nonsense”.
The finger-pointing forced Qatar, which has been mediating weeks of painstaking negotiations, to delay an expected announcement of a deal.
The Israeli military, the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency and the air force attacked about 50 targets throughout Gaza over the last 24 hours, Shin Bet and the military said in a statement on Wednesday.
Israeli strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians across the enclave. Those included seven people who were in a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, and six others killed in separate airstrikes on houses in Deir Al-Balah, Bureij camp and Rafah, medics said.