The prime minister of Qatar announced late Wednesday that a phased deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas to end more than 460 days of brutal and devastating war in Gaza.
The first phase of a three-stage agreement will begin on Sunday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said during a brief press conference in Doha:
Even before Al Thani announced that a deal was reached, Palestinians in Gaza who have endured more than a year of constant Israeli attacks and displacement welcomed the imminent news of an agreement with celebrations in the streets.
The text of the agreement, mediated in part by Qatar, has not been published officially. The prime minister of the Gulf state said that the exact terms of the second and third phase have yet to be hammered out by the two parties.
Al Thani said that the first phase of the deal would take place over 42 days and see the release of 33 Israelis held captive in Gaza – both living and dead, and both soldiers and civilians – in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers.
That phase also includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza’s populated areas, Al Thani added, as well as evacuation of the wounded for medical treatment outside of Gaza.
Palestinians displaced within Gaza will be able to return to their homes during the first phase, Al Thani said, and there will be a surge in desperately needed humanitarian aid across the territory.
The Qatari prime minister said that Doha would work closely with Cairo and Washington to guarantee the implementation of the agreement but that it was up to the parties to fully commit to all three phases, honor their obligations and reach a lasting casefire.
Pressure
US President Joe Biden stated that the agreement bringing an end to 15 months of war that threatened to destabilize the entire region was the result of “extreme pressure” on Hamas and the weakening of Iran.
The deal is also the result of “dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” Biden added.
The lame duck president undermined his claim by acknowledging that the plan agreed to by Israel and Hamas on Wednesday was the same one that he presented in May.
“My diplomacy never ceased in their efforts to get this done,” Biden said.
But two Arab officials told The Times of Israel that Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy of Donald Trump – who begins his second term as US president on Monday – did more to sway Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in one meeting than Biden did in a whole year.
The prevailing analysis in the Israeli media is that it was the incoming Trump administration’s pressure on Netanyahu, rather than Israeli pressure on Hamas, that got the agreement over the finish line.
(Electronic Intifada)
