A multi-phase cease-fire agreement has reportedly been reached between Isreal and Hamas that includes the release of hostages.
Negotiators from Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire in Gaza after more than 15 months of devastating war, officials said on Wednesday.
The agreement needs to be formally ratified by the Israeli cabinet, two senior Israeli officials said. In the run-up to the deal, officials said there was last-minute wrangling over the Egypt-Gaza border, which Israeli forces currently control.
The office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said in a statement that a number of clauses in the agreement still remained unresolved, but that it was hoped that they would be worked out on Wednesday night.
The cease-fire would take effect immediately, according to a White House official. Its first phase will last six weeks, and hostages will start being released during that phase, though it was not clear when that could begin. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deal.
If implemented, the cease-fire would allow for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel, after over a year of war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed much of the enclave.
Basem Naim, a Hamas official, confirmed the agreement, although the Palestinian militant group had yet to release a formal statement.
President-elect Donald J. Trump also announced that a hostage deal had been reached, writing on social media that “THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY.” Mr. Trump had threatened severe consequences unless Israel and Hamas reached an agreement before his Jan. 20 inauguration, which some officials credited with helping to advance the negotiations.
The nearly uninterrupted fighting in Gaza has left Hamas severely battered, with many of its military commanders killed, including its longtime leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in September.
Neither Israel nor Hamas had publicly endorsed the agreement, but the Palestinian group said on Tuesday that the negotiations had entered their “final stages,” and Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on Wednesday evening that he was returning early from a trip abroad to join cabinet discussions about the hostages. Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday evening that it had responded to the proposed deal, without clarifying further.
In order to implement the deal, Hamas’s negotiating team at the talks in Doha, Qatar, had to obtain the consent of the group’s commanders in Gaza, including Muhammad Sinwar, the brother of the commander killed by Israel in October.
Indeed they have – and on cue the right is saying it’s because Hamas is afraid of Trump and what he will do once he gets in office. Of course if that were the case they would have pulled a Reagan and announced the cease fire as he’s being sworn in.
All of this brought to you by an overworked, underpaid civil and foreign service staff whom the GOP wants to mostly eliminate.Report
It’s not Hamas who’s afraid of Trump. Hamas had agreed to basically this deal in May, and at least 2 other times. What’s more, Hamas was able to get some last minute concessions that hadn’t been in the May Biden deal that they had, again, already agreed to. It is Israel who is afraid of Trump. .
The best tweet I saw about this was something like, “If the Democrats had known losing the election would result in a ceasefire, they’d have tried harder to win it.”Report
I doubt Bibi is afraid of his fellow traveler.Report
I think there’s a pretty persuasive case to be made that Bibi isn’t afraid exactly of Trump but uneasy because he knows a lot of people who don’t like him have Trumps’ ear. The Saudi/’s, for example. I think it’s not so much fear of Trump trying to fish Bibi over so much as fear that Trump will be too unpredictable for Bibi to continue to do the fan dance he’s been doing.Report
Not sure “afraid” is the right word. Israel has accomplished everything that it reasonably can so it’s looking for an excuse to go to the next phase.Report
If any right-winger says that it’s due to Trump, bring up the Logan Act.Report
Hit Bibi with the Logan Act:
Report
The Dems will need to think very hard about how they’re going to interact with Likud going forward I suspect.Report
They’re going to have to either:
1. Pick Side A
2. Pick Side B
3. Say “look, the conflict is over, we have a ceasefire, can we all just please change the subject to abortion and black lives and whether they matter?”
My money is on 3.Report
I don’t think it’s quite that simple. To put it in Jaybird terms Likud, led by Netanyahu, has been hitting the “defect” button on the bipartisan support for Israel issue for a long time now and the Dems have been responding by pressing the “cooperate” button while increasingly testily commenting on it. At some point their decision is going to have to change. As someone once said- the game is iterated.Report
So pick Side B?
I’d argue that Side B did a good job of changing the tide in Michigan and, interestingly, is taking the ceasefire as a “win” and an argument that voting the way they did was the right choice.
Winning back Side B will be possible… but they defected too.Report
Like I said, it’s not simple.
If side B is Muslims then probably not with the PA moribund and all other Muslim participants in the direct question of Israel being deranged.
If I were to guess, probably things may go with campaigning following normal nostrums but Likud discovering that increasing numbers of Democrats respond to Likud calls with “new phone, who’s this?”Report
There is a strong suggestion that Trump made a deal with Netanyahu where the US would back Israel’s settlements in the WB. I.e. that the cost of ending the war (no, I won’t call it “genocide”) was the Palestinians will lose land.
If that’s the case I expect “voting the way they did was the right choice” won’t age well.Report
Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 3 hostages. Bloody bastards Hamas.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/2025-01-19/live-updates-838156Report