Israel, Hamas ceasefire poised to begin Sunday
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is poised to begin Sunday, after the Israeli security cabinet on Friday endorsed the deal covering it and the release of hostages and called for the full government to agree to the terms.
The start of the ceasefire will likely allow for the release of three Israeli civilian female hostages on the first day, in exchange for 90 Palestinian children and female prisoners. Those terms were included in the ceasefire agreement that President Biden introduced in May. Biden said on Wednesday the deal matched his spring proposal.
“Following an evaluation of all diplomatic, security and humanitarian aspects, and while understanding that the proposed deal supports the achievement of the objectives of the war, the Security Cabinet has recommended that the Government approve the proposed framework,” the office of Israel’s prime minister said in a statement posted Friday on the social media site X.
It's not yet clear when the Israeli government will vote on the deal. The Israeli Supreme Court is also expected to allow 24 hours for any appeals.
A Sunday start for a ceasefire would begin the clock on what is expected to be six weeks of calm, during which Hamas and the Israeli military both pause fighting and Israeli ground trips begin retreating from populated areas of the Gaza Strip.
The start of the ceasefire would mark a major foreign policy win for both President Biden and President-elect Trump at the moment of transition between the two administrations. While Biden led the painstaking efforts to draft the detailed terms of the deal and rally international support behind it, Trump turned up pressure for it to cross the finish line. This included dispatching his pick for special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to exert pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward with the deal.
It was a remarkable example of cooperation between the Biden and Trump teams, with a senior Biden administration official calling Witkoff’s involvement “quite effective.”
But it’s unclear how Trump’s team will follow through on holding together the full ceasefire deal, which requires further, indirect negotiations between Israeli and Hamas officials toward a permanent end of the war.
Under the terms of the deal, Israeli and Hamas officials are expected to reconvene by the 16th day of the ceasefire and work out the details to move to a second phase.
The second phase will constitute a permanent ceasefire, but must be agreed to to allow for the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Biden, in remarks delivered Wednesday, said that the first phase of the ceasefire is expected to hold as long as negotiators are talking with each other to get to the second phase, even if it extends beyond the six-week deadline.
But Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fl.), said the new administration will back Israel if it says it needs to restart military operations against Hamas.
Still, the pause in fighting is expected to bring relief to nearly 2 million Palestinians who have suffered 15 months of bombardment amid Israel’s war against Hamas. The war started after Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Approximately 1,200 people were killed that day and 250 taken hostage. A week-long ceasefire at the end of November, 2023 allowed for the release of about 100 hostages.
And while Israel’s military has eliminated much of Hamas’s top leadership, including the so-called architect of Oct. 7, Yahya Sinwar, more than half of the 46,000 Palestinians killed throughout the war were women and children, and U.S. officials say Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost.
Israeli forces have been accused of war crimes and labeled as carrying out a genocide by aid organizations. Israel, backed by the U.S., rejects these claims and blames Hamas for embedding itself among civilians and putting them in harm's way.
U.S., Egyptian and Qatari officials, who mediated the ceasefire deal, have put incentives for both Hamas and Israel to stick to the deal.
Hamas is expected to get the release of 30 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails for each hostage it releases. Hamas holds about 98 hostages, living and dead, including three living Americans, the remains of four dead Americans, two Israelis who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers held since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
Among the group to be released in a second phase of the ceasefire include an American-Israeli, Edan Alexander, who was serving in the Israel Defense Forces when kidnapped on Oct. 7.
Humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip is expected to surge during the ceasefire, allowing the rehabilitation of civilian infrastructure, to include electricity, water, sanitation, telecommunications and roads. Supplies for civil defense, debris removal, and rubble clearance will also be delivered. At least 60,000 temporary housing units and 200,000 tents are listed as required for people who lost their homes.
Updated at 8:44 a.m. EST
