On Wednesday, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian detainees, after more than 15 months of bloody war, according to informed sources in Doha.
A source familiar with the negotiations, who requested anonymity, said, “An agreement has been reached for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of prisoners.”
In Washington, an American official confirmed that a ceasefire agreement had been reached.
The announcement came after an informed source told Agence France-Presse that Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman bin Jassim Al Thani “met with Hamas negotiators in his office in a final effort” to complete the agreement.
Shortly before the announcement, US President-elect Donald Trump praised reaching an agreement just five days before his return to power.
He wrote on his page on the Truth Social social networking site, “We have an agreement regarding hostages in the Middle East. They will be released soon. Thank you all! ».
Earlier, on Wednesday, Hamas announced that it had submitted an official response to the proposed ceasefire agreement with Israel in Gaza.
The movement said in a statement: “The Hamas leadership recently handed over to the mediating brothers (Egypt and Qatar) its response to the ceasefire agreement proposal.”
She added: “The movement’s political bureau held an emergency meeting (without specifying the day of the meeting) to discuss the proposal submitted by the mediators.”
Hamas continued: “The movement dealt with all responsibility and positivity, based on its responsibility towards our patient people stationed in the proud Gaza Strip, by stopping the Zionist aggression against them and putting an end to the massacres and war of extermination to which they are being subjected.”
In a second statement, the movement said that Muhammad Darwish, Chairman of the Shura Council and Chairman of the Leadership Council, met with a delegation from the Islamic Jihad movement headed by Ziad al-Nakhalah, Secretary-General of the movement (in the Qatari capital, Doha).
-The movement reported that the meeting reviewed “the current developments in the ceasefire negotiations and their arrival in their final stages.”
The two sides stressed that “the steadfastness and heroic steadfastness of our people, the valor of the resistance, and the strong will are the main support for the Palestinian negotiator in the battle of the Al-Aqsa flood.”
The two sides stressed, according to the statement, “the importance of intensifying efforts to make this round of negotiations a success, with the aim of reaching an agreement that will stop the war and aggression against the Palestinian people.”
Earlier Wednesday, a Palestinian source told Anadolu that the Hamas movement had delivered to the mediators a “positive” response to the draft ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza.
The private Hebrew Channel 12 said on Wednesday that the implementation of the expected prisoner exchange agreement will begin next Sunday, with the release of 3 Israeli prisoners, followed by other releases in the coming days according to a specific schedule.
The news of the imminent signing of the agreement on Gaza comes after long obstruction by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who prevented it from being reached for months because he proposed new conditions or backed away from previous understandings, at a time when Israel continues unabated in its genocidal war on Gaza.
The current negotiations on the agreement witnessed remarkable progress following intense pressure exerted by Steve Witkoff, the envoy of US President-elect Donald Trump to the Middle East, on Netanyahu during a meeting described as “tense” between them last Saturday, according to what was reported by the private Hebrew website “The Times of Israel”.
Tel Aviv holds more than 10,300 Palestinians in its prisons, while it estimates there are 98 Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip, while Hamas announced the killing of dozens of its prisoners in random Israeli raids.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in Gaza that has left more than 156,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
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