Israel and Hamas have reportedly reached a ceasefire agreement to end their 15-month conflict in Gaza. The deal, mediated by the US, Qatar, and Egypt, includes a 42-day truce and the exchange of prisoners.
The official announcement is expected on Wednesday evening in Cairo, but US President-elect Donald Trump has already made several statements confirming that the agreement has been reached, crediting his envoy Steve Witkoff for the breakthrough.
Hamas launched a series of raids out of Gaza on October 7, 2023, which were blamed for the deaths of over 1,100 Israelis, while 250 Israelis were said to have been taken captive. West Jerusalem responded by declaring war on the Palestinian militant group. More than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, while much of the enclave has been turned to rubble.
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16 January 2025
The Israel-Hamas deal is split into three phases, although work on the details of the latter stages is still reportedly underway.
According to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Hamas and its allies will release 33 hostages, including children, female soldiers, wounded and sick, in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinians as part of the first phase.
An unnamed Israeli official told CNN that the terms of the second phase are still being negotiated, but that they should go into effect on the 16th day of the deal.
According to US President Joe Biden, the second stage would require the exchange of the remaining prisoners, including male soldiers. This phase will also involve Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, Biden said.
The third stage, he added, would focus on returning the remains of the hostages to their families and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Senior Hamas leader and chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya has thanked Russia, China, Türkiye and several other nations for their support of the Palestinian people after reports of the ceasefire deal.
In a televised address, he singled out Qatar and Egypt for their mediation efforts and hosting several rounds of talks that paved the way for the agreement.
European leaders have welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, calling for its consistent implementation.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the deal as “good news,” noting that the hostages include German citizens. “This agreement must now be implemented to the letter. All of the hostages must be released.”
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the truce, emphasizing the need for a durable peace. “The agreement must be respected. The hostages freed. The Gazans rescued. A political solution must come”.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised the agreement as “long-overdue,” and expressed hope that it would lead to a “permanently better future for the Israeli and Palestinian people, grounded in a two-state solution.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen echoed the sentiment, saying the deal “brings hope to an entire region, where people have endured immense suffering for far too long.”
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has accused Hamas of attempting to backtrack on previously agreed “understandings” concerning the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
“Contrary to an explicit clause that gives Israel veto power over the release of mass murderers who are symbols of terror, Hamas demands to dictate the identity of these terrorists,” the statement said. “The Prime Minister instructed the negotiating team to stand firm on the agreed understandings, and to outright reject Hamas’s last-minute extortion attempts.”
The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, has confirmed the organization’s readiness to assist in implementing the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian factions.
“We are ready to facilitate any release operation as agreed by the parties so that hostages and detainees can return home. We are also prepared to massively scale up our humanitarian response in Gaza, where the situation demands it,” Spoljaric said.
Speaking in Jerusalem during her visit to Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, Spoljaric emphasized the ICRC’s commitment to reuniting families, facilitating the release of hostages and detainees, and delivering much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Civilians in Gaza need protection and humanitarian aid. The hostages need to come home. This is only possible with political commitment from all sides to put humanity first and respect the rules of war,” she said.
US President Joe Biden began his farewell address to the nation by taking full credit for brokering the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
“Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration – by my administration – a ceasefire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year,” Biden stated.
“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans,” he added.
President-elect Donald Trump, however, also claimed responsibility for the breakthrough following months of stalled negotiations.
“Is that a joke?” Biden reportedly asked earlier in the day when questioned by a reporter about who history would credit for the ceasefire.
The World Health Organization’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has welcomed a ceasefire in Gaza, expressing hope that all parties will respect the deal and work towards lasting peace.
“Too many lives have been lost and too many families have suffered,” Tedros wrote on X.
“Health needs in Gaza remain enormous,” he noted, adding that the WHO “is ready to scale up its support, alongside partners.”
15 January 2025
At least 12 people were killed, and several others injured in a new Israeli attack on a residential block in the Sheikh Radwan Pond area of Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Palestinian Civil Defence.
The rescue agency has accused the IDF of intensifying its bombardment despite the announcement of a ceasefire, which is scheduled to take effect on Sunday.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, has also welcomed the ceasefire announcement.
“This agreement will finally bring much needed respite for the people of Gaza and the release of hostages,” he wrote in a post on X. “What’s needed is rapid, unhindered and uninterrupted humanitarian access and supplies to respond to the tremendous suffering caused by this war.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has expressed “huge relief” over the announced ceasefire deal, while emphasizing the urgency of addressing critical humanitarian needs in Gaza, where relentless bombing and combat have left much of the region in ruins.
”I urge parties to the conflict and all countries with influence to do everything in their power to ensure the success of the next stages of the ceasefire, including the release of all hostages and an end to the war in its entirety,” he said in a statement.
The UN rights chief also underscored the importance of accountability for violations of international law committed by all sides in the conflict. “Those responsible for the heinous acts of 7 October, the subsequent unlawful killings of civilians across Gaza, and for all other crimes under international law must be held to account,” he said. “The right of victims to full reparations must be upheld. There is no true way forward without honest truth-telling and accountability on all sides.”
Calling for a focus on human rights in Gaza’s eventual reconstruction, Türk reiterated the need for a lasting peace rooted in the internationally agreed two-state solution, denouncing “Israel’s illegal continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed gratitude to US President-elect Donald Trump for his support in facilitating an upcoming Gaza agreement, according to a statement from the PM's office, as cited by Reuters. The two leaders have agreed to meet soon in Washington to discuss the deal and further strengthen US-Israel ties.
Netanyahu also spoke with outgoing US President Joe Biden, thanking him for his assistance, according to the report.
Two Americans, Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen, are among those slated to be released during the initial six-week phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, CNN writes, citing “a senior administration official and two other sources” familiar with the list.
US President Joe Biden earlier confirmed that Americans would be among those released during the first phase of the deal, but didn't comment on how many would come out.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has called a preparatory ceasefire a necessary and important move, offering support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government.
“This deal–when signed, approved, and implemented–will bring with it deeply painful, challenging, and harrowing moments. It will also present significant challenges,” the president said in an address to the nation.
Herzog added that the deal will return those who were captured, which “will make a vital contribution to our national and social resilience.” According to Israeli officials, around 100 hostages remain in captivity.
Herzog thanked the parties participating in the negotiations, the United States, Qatar, and Egypt, “and all other parties that pushed for the release of the hostages.” He also offered special thanks to the outgoing US President Joe Biden and to President-elect Donald Trump.
RT reports celebrations from Khan Yunis in Gaza, where chants and gunfire can be heard following news of the ceasefire agreement.
“This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement on Wednesday.
The ceasefire is the result “not only of the extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran” but also “dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” said the statement, posted on the White House website.
Hamas confirmed that a ceasefire agreement on Gaza has been reached. “The agreement to stop the aggression on Gaza is an achievement for our people, our resistance, our nation, and the free people of the world. It is a turning point in the conflict with the enemy, on the path to achieving our people’s goals of liberation and return,” the group said, in a statement posted on Telegram.
A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas will begin on January 19, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, said during a press conference in Doha on Wednesday.
Palestinians in Gaza have begun celebrating the ceasefire, which has still not been officially announced.
Netanyahu’s office has stated that a ceasefire deal in Gaza has not been finalized, but has suggested that the final details could be resolved in the coming hours. “Several clauses in the framework are still unresolved, and we hope to finalize the details tonight,” Associated Press wrote, quoting the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Back in November, Israel reached a ceasefire with Hezbollah, following 14 months of hostilities in Lebanon that left more than 3,500 people dead and numerous communities across the country damaged or destroyed.
Hezbollah joined Hamas’ war against Israel in October 2023, and for much of the following year fought a low-intensity campaign against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) along the ‘blue line’ separating Lebanon from Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.
The conflict escalated dramatically in September when Israel began bombarding Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut’s southern suburbs, and by November, dozens of the paramilitary group’s top commanders had been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Under the deal, the militant organization agreed to withdraw from the area of southern Lebanon between the blue line and the Litani River, with only Aoun’s forces and UN peacekeepers permitted to deploy in the area. The ceasefire is set to expire on January 27.
The ceasefire is expected to take effect on Sunday, a senior Arab official has told the Times of Israel. One of the “minor” issues still being worked out is the vetting of around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners who are supposed to be released, mainly Gazans detained since the conflict began, he added. Israel wants most of them to be sent to a third country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied rumors about an IDF withdrawal from the ‘Philadelphi Corridor’ being part of the deal. West Jerusalem has insisted on keeping troops in the strip of territory along the border between Egypt and Gaza during the implementation of the ceasefire.
An anonymous Israeli official told the Times of Israel that Hamas has “folded” on its demands regarding the corridor due to Netanyahu’s insistence, but “there are still a number of details that have not been finalized.”
The cabinet in West Jerusalem is reportedly meeting on Thursday morning to officially approve the agreement.
US President-elect Donald Trump commented on the agreement, calling it an “EPIC ceasefire agreement” that could have only happened as a result of his victory. His national security team will ”continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven,” the president-elect added in a Truth Social post.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald has attributed the ceasefire deal to US President-elect Donald Trump, criticizing the outgoing administration for doing nothing.
“I don’t care what Trump’s motives are or what else he promised Israel, which I’m sure is non-trivial,” Greenwald said on X on Wednesday. “Anyone who causes an end to Israel’s civilian- destruction in Gaza has done a good thing, and there’s no denying his key role.”
On Tuesday, while the truce was still a rumor, Greenwald pointed out that “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were in office 15 months while Israel destroyed Gaza, and never once imposed conditions or used US leverage to get a peace deal. Trump wins and 6 days before he’s inaugurated, Israel and Hamas have a peace deal in principle that Israel says it hates.”
According to Al Jazeera, the agreement between Israel and Hamas includes a six-week ceasefire. Israel is to release 30 Palestinians for every hostage, as well as 50 Palestinians for every Israeli female soldier. The 33 Israeli hostages are to be released within 42 days.
The Qatar-based channel also claims that the agreement includes 600 trucks of humanitarian aid entering Gaza daily. The total number of Palestinians released by Israel during the deal could reach 1,650.
“We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East,” US President-elect Donald Trump has posted on his TruthSocial platform on Wednesday. “They will be released shortly.”
Hamas’ delegation has delivered its approval of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement to mediators, according to a statement by the group on Telegram. “The movement affirms that it responded responsibly and positively to the proposal, guided by its commitment to our steadfast people in the Gaza Strip to halt the Zionist aggression” and to end the fighting, the announcement claimed.
The deal between Israel and Hamas, which has not yet been officially announced as of Wednesday, outlines an initial six-week ceasefire phase. This agreement includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian detainees held by Israel, according to Reuters, citing an official briefed on the negotiations.