Israel agrees hostage deal with Hamas

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TEL AVIV/GAZA — Israel and Hamas have reached a breakthrough deal in their ongoing conflict for a four-day humanitarian pause to allow the release of at least 50 hostages – women and children – held in Gaza, key negotiator Qatar said Wednesday.

After weeks of Qatar-brokered negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved the truce accord Wednesday after a near-all-night meeting, in which he told ministers this was a “difficult decision but it’s a right decision.”

The cabinet’s sign-off was one of the last stumbling blocks after what one US official described as five “extremely excruciating” weeks of talks.

Hamas released a statement welcoming the “humanitarian truce” and said it would also see 150 Palestinians released from Israeli jails.

“The resistance is committed to the truce as long as the occupation honours it,” a Hamas official told AFP.

The deal, which follows weeks of negotiations that included the United States and Egypt, marks the first major breakthrough nearly seven weeks since Israel declared war on Hamas.

The hostages will be released in exchange for a number of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails, Qatar said in a statement. The start of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours.

According to the Hamas statement, the deal will also allow the entry of hundreds of trucks carrying aid relief, medical supplies and fuel to Gaza.

While the exact names of the hostages to be released has yet to be publicized, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said they are all Israelis, though some have dual nationalities. After the deal was announced, US President Joe Biden said it “should bring home additional American hostages.”

Hamas carried out on October 7 a cross-border attack, the worst in Israel’s history, that left around 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli government.

Hamas and other Palestinian groups also took an estimated 240 Israelis and foreigners hostage, among them elderly people and young children.

Israel declared war on Hamas, vowing to bring the hostages home and to destroy the militant group.

It launched a major bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, which, according to the Hamas government in the territory, has killed 14,100 people, thousands of them children.

Israel said to facilitate the hostage release it would initiate a four-day “pause” in its six-week-old air, land and sea assault of Gaza, while it stressed that the agreement did not spell the end of the war.

For every 10 additional hostages released, there would be an extra day’s “pause”, the Israeli government said.

Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group that took part in the October 7 attacks, had earlier told AFP the truce would include a ceasefire on the ground and a pause in Israeli air operations over southern Gaza.

The negotiations have involved the US Central Intelligence Agency, Israel’s overseas spy agency Mossad, Egyptian intelligence, and leaders in Doha, Cairo, Washington, Gaza and Israel.

A senior US official said three Americans, including three-year-old Abigail Mor Idan, were among the 50 earmarked for staggered release from Thursday.

Ahead of the Israeli cabinet vote, Netanyahu had faced criticism from within his right-wing coalition, some of whom thought the deal gave too much to the Palestinian groups.

Hardline Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir signaled he would vote against the agreement, saying it should include the release of Israeli soldiers also taken by Hamas.

But with dozens of families in Israel who are beyond desperate to have their loved ones returned home, and the Israeli public gripped by the hostages’ fate, the government ultimately set aside any misgivings.

Israel’s hawkish Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said before the crunch meeting that he had won assurances that the deal would not spell the end of the war.

“Immediately after we have exhausted this phase” he said, security operations would “continue in full force.”

For Palestinians in Gaza, a respite in the brutal fighting cannot come soon enough.

The deal will allow hundreds of lorries of humanitarian, medical and fuel aid to enter all parts of the Gaza Strip via Egypt’s Rafah crossing. Aid agencies have been working to get ready for this.

It is understood that the boost in fuel – desperately needed for hospital generators, water desalination and sewage facilities – will only last for as long as the pause.

Although the deal is set to halt most Israeli military operations and allow people in Gaza safe passage from north to south, it will not permit the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from the north to return home.

Earlier, Gaza resident Hamza Abdel Razeq said he would welcome any ceasefire agreement, hoping it would bring some respite for people who have endured Israel’s bombing and expanding ground offensive.

“The people are really suffering,” he told AFP. “I believe it will pave the way for longer truces or even a total ceasefire.”

A US official said there was also hope that the deal would lead to a “full pause” in fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border between Israel and Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the border has seen escalating exchanges of fire, killing scores on both sides.

Another Gaza resident, Mahmud Abu Najm, said: “We… pray to God for its success because the people are enduring an unbearable situation.”

Large parts of Gaza have been flattened by thousands of air strikes, and the territory is under siege, with minimal food, water and fuel allowed in.

Six weeks into the war, Israel has come under intense international pressure to implement a humanitarian ceasefire.

But in recent days it has pressed its offensive into northern Gaza.

The Israeli military said air strikes had hit “around 250” Hamas targets in the past day, destroying three underground shafts in the Jabalia area, which it said it had fully surrounded.

At Jabalia’s Indonesian Hospital, the Hamas-run health ministry said strikes had killed dozens, but there was no independent confirmation of the toll.

The Israeli army said later its troops had “directly targeted” the source of fire from within the Indonesian Hospital.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said three doctors, including two it employed, were killed in an Israeli strike on the Al-Awda hospital in Jabalia refugee camp. — Agencies



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