Relief, hope, bitterness, anger, anxiety, fear of heights. On Wednesday January 15, all these sometimes contradictory feelings mixed together, from the Middle East to the United States, with the announcement of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, so often hoped for and so often postponed for fifteen months. This agreement without a winner, the result of diplomatic relations between the United States, Egypt and Qatar, should allow, as of Sunday, an end to the fighting in the Palestinian territory, where more than 46,000 people have been killed, and a liberation gradual increase in the hundred hostages still in the hands of Hamas (34 of whom have already died, according to Israel), since the unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023.
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The text, which must be ratified Thursday morning by the Israeli government before coming into force, first provides for a six-week ceasefire and the possibility for Palestinian civilians to move throughout the territory. During this first phase, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel would be released, in exchange for the release of 33 hostages held by Hamas, including two Americans (children, women, people over 50, wounded and sick). Humanitarian aid, largely blocked for months by Israel, should flow. Then Phase 2 would begin, with the release of the remaining hostages and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip. Phase 3 would be the start of reconstruction projects, a prospect that is still very distant.
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