Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal to release 50 civilian hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a four-day cessation of hostilities.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said it had agreed to a deal that would provide for a four-day “pause in fighting” to facilitate the release of 50 hostages, as well as an additional day of ceasefire for every 10 hostages released thereafter.
The pause, which marks the longest break in the conflict since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7, is expected to be accompanied by an influx of humanitarian aid – including fuel – into Gaza.
Israel will initially release up to 150 Palestinian women and children from its prisons. On Wednesday morning, Israel’s Justice Ministry released a list of around 300 prisoners who could be included in the deal.
The Israeli public has 24 hours to appeal the deal, and one group, the Almagor Terror Victims Association, said it would do so. In the past, the Supreme Court has rejected such appeals.
The hostages held in the coastal enclave are being released in groups as Israel and Hamas test the durability of the deal. Their release will begin 24 hours after the deal is announced, a senior U.S. official said, and will be staggered over four to five days.
A senior U.S. government official said three of the 10 missing Americans were expected to be released under the first phase of the deal, including a girl who turns four on Friday. Even after the release, Hamas and other groups in Gaza will still hold nearly 200 more hostages, including Israeli soldiers and other women and children.
The complex negotiations – brokered by Qatar, home of Hamas’ political leadership, and negotiated with US and Israeli spy chiefs – took weeks to complete, with disagreements over details, logistics and Israel’s final concessions to secure the release the hostages came.
US President Joe Biden thanked the leaders of Qatar and Egypt for their “decisive leadership and partnership in reaching this agreement” and said he appreciated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s support for “an extended pause to ensure that this agreement can be fully implemented.”
“Today’s deal should bring more American hostages home, and I will not stop until they are all released,” Biden said.
Qatar acknowledged “the success of its joint mediation efforts” to reach the agreement and reiterated “its commitment to ongoing diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions” between Israel and Hamas.
Before the Israeli government voted on the deal, Netanyahu said Biden had intervened to improve conditions “to accommodate more hostages at a lower cost.”
Hamas’s initial demand was to suspend hostilities for 10 days, but this was rejected, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. It then asked for five days. Israel insisted on a shorter break.
The person briefed on the talks said other points of contention included the logistics of the exchange, including the order in which people would be released; whether Israel could use drones to monitor the trial; the number of Palestinian prisoners released and where they might go if released from prison.
If the swap is successful, negotiators hope it will be the first of several to secure the release of more Israeli civilians and foreign nationals in exchange for an extension of the pause in fighting, the person added.
The person expressed hope that Hamas would also use the pause to gather civilian hostages not under its control in Gaza. Some of them are believed to be held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant faction, and criminal gangs.
Hamas has said it wants to keep the Israeli soldiers captured on October 7 in the hope of exchanging them for senior Palestinians, including some militants, in Israeli prisons. Four of the approximately 240 hostages held by Hamas in the enclave have already been released and the deaths of two others have been confirmed. One, a soldier, was saved.
More than 1.5 million Palestinians have been displaced and are living in “catastrophic humanitarian conditions,” crammed into overcrowded shelters and private homes, according to U.N. officials. Hospitals have collapsed, food is scarce and there is little access to fresh water.
In Gaza, news of a brief lull in fighting brought little relief to an exhausted population that had been subjected to six weeks of heavy bombardment.
In Rafah, near the Egyptian border, 37-year-old Samar Mosbah said a ceasefire would be “meaningless” because she would not be allowed to return to her home to check on the ceasefire or to check on relatives who remained there.
“My family is still in Gaza because my mother is elderly and couldn’t travel south,” said Mosbah, who was displaced from the northern Gaza Strip. “They continue to be bombed and we continue to be displaced. A ceasefire won’t change anything.”
Marwa Saleh, who was displaced from Gaza City in the north to Deir al-Balah in the center of the Strip, said: “Even if we get fuel, what will we do with it? We must not return to our destroyed homes.”
She added: “As usual, there will be intense airstrikes today before the ceasefire comes into force. “We are victims who will not be seen by anyone.”
The fate of the hostages has compounded Israelis’ trauma from the events of October 7 and has become a politically sensitive issue for Netanyahu.
Recommended
The prisoners’ families have pressured his government to do more to secure their freedom even as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive.
Meanwhile, right-wing extremist politicians vehemently reject concessions to Hamas. Ultranationalist Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and two other ministers from his extreme Jewish Power party voted against the agreement.
Israel, backed by the Biden administration, had resisted growing international calls for a ceasefire and insisted that a cessation of fighting would come only after Hamas agreed to the release of large numbers of prisoners.
White House Middle East adviser Brett McGurk told a conference in Bahrain over the weekend that a pause in the Israeli attack and an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza “will occur when the hostages are released.”
According to Israeli officials, Hamas killed about 1,200 people in its Oct. 7 attack. Nearly 13,000 people have been killed by Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian officials.