Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss / January 16, 2025
A ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, promising an end to more than a year of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire is planned to take effect on January 19, pending a vote from the Israeli security cabinet.
After 476 days, the Israeli war on Gaza is closer than ever to ending, after a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal was announced in Doha, Qatar, between Israel and Hamas. The deal will enter into effect next Sunday, January 19.
The Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammad Bin AbdulRahman Al Thani announced the deal in Doha, late on Wednesday, January 15, following days of anticipation and intensified talks in Doha, which saw important breakthroughs on key issues that had been deemed ‘unsolvable’ in previous rounds of talks. Among such issues are Israel’s acceptance of withdrawing its forces from the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, and the return of displaced Palestinians to their destroyed homes in the north of the strip. Israel had insisted on refusing both conditions in past negotiations, which prolonged the war for months.
Shortly before the announcement of the deal, US president-elect, Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released shortly.” According to leaks, Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, directly pressured Netanyahu to move his positions and accept the deal.
According to reports, the ceasefire deal includes two phases. The first phase, lasting 42 days, will include a complete halt of hostilities, and a gradual release of Israeli captives in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian captives in Israeli jails. In this phase, Hamas and other Palestinian factions will release 33 Israelis who were captured on October 7, 2023, including all remaining five women, those aged above 50, and those with illnesses. It is not known yet who of them is still alive. Israel will simultaneously release hundreds of Palestinians, from the same category, reaching up to 1,000 prisoners and detainees.
The Israeli army will begin to withdraw its forces from the populated areas of the Gaza Strip on the first day of the ceasefire. The return of displaced Palestinians to the north will begin on the 7th day of the ceasefire. Israel backed down on its previous refusal to allow the return of Palestinians to the north, as well as previous stipulations around age restrictions. The displaced who return on foot only will be searched, but not those who will return in vehicles. The deal also stipulates the entry of humanitarian aid in the first days of the ceasefire, at a rate of 600 trucks a day. The aid that will enter in the first phase include medical supplies and necessary material to rehabilitate destroyed hospitals and bakeries.
Negotiations over the details of the second phase will begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire. The second phase will see the release of the remaining captives being held in Gaza, specifically Israeli army soldiers and officers, as well as the remaining bodies of killed captives. The names and numbers of Palestinian detainees to be released in this phase is yet to be negotiated. This phase will also include the beginning of reconstruction in Gaza. Israel will complete its withdrawal from the Gaza strip in the second phase, maintaining only a military presence in a 700 meter strip along the fence line of the strip, and in some parts of the Philadelphi corridor, which runs along the border with Egypt.
Israel will completely withdraw from the Rafah crossing point. US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators gave guarantees to secure the completion of Israeli withdrawal. The third phase will see negotiations for a permanent end of the war.
During the announcement of the ceasefire deal on Wednesday, Qatar’s Prime Minister thanked the US, and especially Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, as well as Egyptian mediators for helping secure the deal. He also affirmed that Qatar, Egypt and the US will continue to mediate talks over the second and third phase, and oversee the implementation.
Shortly after the announcement in Doha, the US president Joe Biden also released a statement, emphasizing that the deal will include the release of captives with US nationalities, and ill, elderly and female captives. He also said that his team and the efforts of his administration in providing military assistance to Israel, and weakening Hezbollah and Iran led to the deal.
For its part, Hamas said in a short statement that the deal is “the fruit of the legendary steadfastness of our people and its resistance,” considering it “a step towards our [the Palestinian] people’s aims of liberation and return [of refugees].”
In a televised speech, Hamas’s politburo chief Khalil Al-Hayeh said that the ceasefire deal came after “the most horrible genocide in modern history, which will remain a stain of shame on the front of all humanity, especially those who supported it with tons of bombs and weapons.”
Israeli president Yitzhak Herzog expressed in a televised speech his “support to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the negotiations team,” calling upon cabinet members to vote for the deal, which he considered “the right choice.” Netanyahu’s cabinet will meet on Thursday to vote on the ceasefire deal. In his address, Herzog said that “there is no bigger moral or human or Jewish obligation than returning our sons and daughters home,” in reference to the Israeli captives in Gaza.
On the ground in Israel, the deal stirred controversy since before its announcement. The families of Israeli captives have been protesting in Tel Aviv, demanding the release of all captives at once. A number of the captives’ family members also protested during a meeting with Israel’s war minister Yizrael Katz, accusing the Israeli government of cherry-picking the captives that would be released in the first phase.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been holding a string of meetings with his political allies since Monday, especially his finance minister Bezalelel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have vocally opposed any ceasefire in Gaza, threatening on multiple occasions to resign from the cabinet if a deal is reached.
On Tuesday, Smotrich called the deal “catastrophic,” while Ben-Gvir called it “a capitulation to Hamas.” Ben-Gvir called upon Smotrich to resign from the government, in protest against the deal. Ben-Gvir also said that thanks to his pressure, Netanyahu sabotaged the ceasefire talks last July. Ben-Gvir’s statements contradicted Netanyahu’s and the US position that it was Hamas, not Israel, who caused the failure of the ceasefire talks.
Meanwhile, as Palestinians in Gaza celebrated the news of the ceasefire, Israeli warplanes intensified their strikes on the Gaza Strip, especially on Gaza City, shortly after the ceasefire announcement, killing dozens in a matter of hours. As of Wednesday, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, rose to 4,6707 and 110,265 wounded, while 10,000 remained missing under the rubble. According to Palestinian health authorities, 70% of the killed are women, children, and elderly.
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss