Truce in Gaza | The agreement is due to come into force on Sunday morning

(Jerusalem) The agreement on a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages must come into force on Sunday morning, the day after its approval by Israel, after 15 months of a devastating war which has killed tens of thousands deaths in the Palestinian territory.

The ceasefire will begin at 8:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. Eastern), on the eve of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, Qatar, one of the mediators with the Egypt and the United States, who managed to reach this agreement after more than a year of laborious negotiations.

In a first phase spread over six weeks, hostilities must cease and 33 Israeli hostages must be released in exchange for 737 Palestinian prisoners.

According to Egypt, “more than 1,890 Palestinian prisoners” will be released by Israel during this first sentence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded on Saturday evening to receive “the list” of hostages to be released on Sunday before being able to proceed with the first exchange of prisoners under the truce agreement with Hamas.

“We will not proceed with the implementation of the agreement until we have received as agreed the list of hostages who will be released,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement released before a speech to the nation scheduled for 8:10 p.m. (1:10 p.m. Eastern).

Questioned by AFP, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister specified that the list in question was that of hostages to be released on Sunday.

According to information provided by both sides, the first prisoner exchange is not expected to take place until 9:30 a.m. EST on Sunday, six hours after the truce takes effect.

“We will not tolerate any violation of the terms of the agreement,” adds Mr. Netanyahu’s statement.

Announced Wednesday by the mediators, the agreement aims, according to the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, to ultimately lead to “a definitive end to the war”, triggered by a bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 94 are still hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead according to the Israeli army.

Pending the truce, Israeli strikes continued on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 120 people since Wednesday, according to emergency services.

On Saturday, five members of the same family of displaced Palestinians died in a bombing which hit their tent in Khan Younes (South), according to Civil Defense. AFP images showed relatives lamenting over bodies including that of a child.

“I’m counting the minutes”

The Israeli government approved the agreement on Saturday, after the green light from Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Three reception points have been set up on Israel’s southern border with Gaza, at the Kerem Shalom and Eretz crossings and at the one near Kibbutz Reim, a military official said. There, the captives will be taken care of by doctors and then taken to hospitals.

According to sources close to Hamas, the first group of hostages released will be made up of three Israeli women.

Israel designated 95 Palestinian detainees for release on Sunday, the majority women and minors, most of them arrested after October 7. Their release will take place after 9 a.m. (Eastern time), according to authorities.

Among the prisoners expected to be released is Zakaria al-Zoubeidi, responsible for anti-Israeli attacks and former local leader of the armed wing of Fatah, arrested and imprisoned in 2019.

Two Franco-Israelis, Ofer Kalderon, 54, and Ohad Yahalomi, 50, are among the 33 hostages who can be released, according to Paris. They were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with several of their children, released during an initial one-week truce in November 2023.

“I hope that as many hostages as possible will return, that’s the most important thing at the moment. Maybe this is the beginning of the end of the suffering for both sides, I hope,” said Be’eri Yemini, a student in Jerusalem.

In the Gaza Strip ravaged by the Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation for the October 7 attack, many displaced people are preparing to return home.

“I want to return home and set up my tent on the rubble of my house” in Gaza City, said Oum Khalil Bakr, a refugee in Nousseirat.

“I am counting the minutes before I can go see my relatives, my friends, my neighbors,” Mohamed al-Moataz, a displaced Palestinian, told AFPTV in Deir el-Balah.

According to the UN, the war has caused a level of destruction “unprecedented in recent history” in the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel since October 2023.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

At least 46,899 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, already undermined by an Israeli blockade imposed since 2007, poverty and unemployment, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry deemed reliable. by the UN.

“Thirteen months wasted”

According to US President Joe Biden, the first phase of the agreement also includes “a complete ceasefire”, an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas in Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid in a territory threatened by famine according to the UN.

Egyptian authorities announced that the agreement provided for “the entry of 600 aid trucks per day into Gaza, including 50 fuel trucks.”

“Israel will not prevent humanitarian aid from entering,” UN chief Antonio Guterres assured Saturday, admitting however that its distribution in the territory would be “complex”, warning in particular against looting.

During the first phase, the modalities of the second will be negotiated, which should allow the release of the last hostages, before the third and final stage devoted to the reconstruction of Gaza and the restitution of the bodies of hostages who died in captivity.

On Friday, the Qatari prime minister told Sky News that the framework of the current agreement was “the same as the one agreed in December 2023”, lamenting that “13 months of negotiations [aient] been wasted” with the resulting human losses.

Considerably weakened, Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, is however still far from being wiped out, contrary to the objective set by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to experts.

Despite the truce announcement in Gaza, Houthi rebels in Yemen, who support the Palestinians, claimed responsibility for a missile attack Saturday morning against Israel, which was intercepted by the army. A second missile fired from Yemen was intercepted in the afternoon, according to the Israeli army.

The city of Tel Aviv was also the scene of a knife attack perpetrated by a “terrorist” according to the police, suggesting that it was a Palestinian. A man was injured and the attacker “neutralized” by an armed civilian.