What if this time it was the right one? After more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, negotiations for a truce between Israel and Hamas are becoming more and more insistent. A final round of talks began on Tuesday in Qatar, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sending his intelligence chiefs, a general and his foreign policy adviser. Qatar, one of the mediating countries, said on Tuesday that the discussions were at the “final stage” and that an agreement could be reached “very soon”. According to Doha, the “main issues” blocking an agreement have been resolved.
A week before Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House, the United States, also one of the mediating countries with Qatar and Egypt, affirmed that an agreement on a truce associated with a release of hostages held in the Palestinian territory should be concluded within the week.
Towards the release of around thirty hostages…
It would be a three-phase truce. During the first phase, which will last 42 days according to the BBC, 33 or 34 Israeli hostages – the figure varies depending on the source – could be released, out of the approximately 94 still held by Hamas and its allies.
According to CNN, the 33 or 34 hostages who would be released are alive. According to the Israeli media Haaretz, citing national officials, these would be women, children and men over 55 and/or sick. In exchange, the Jewish state would agree to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 190 serving sentences of 15 years or more. But Hamas members who participated in the October 7 attacks and arrested by Israel would not be released, Reuters continues.
In detail, CNN reports that Hamas would release three hostages as soon as the ceasefire comes into force. At the same time, Israel would begin to withdraw its forces from certain populated areas. A week later, the Palestinian organization would release four additional hostages in exchange for which Israel would let the civilians displaced to the South return to the north of the Gaza Strip, via coastal roads and on foot. Israeli troops would then withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, located in central Gaza.
According to Reuters, which does not give a precise timetable, Israeli troops will withdraw “in stages” and will remain in certain border areas to defend Israeli villages. The Jewish state would leave parts of the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip of land 14 km long and 100 m wide on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt that Israel has taken control of.
… then a second and a third phase?
According to the Arab media Al-Jazeera and the BBC, negotiations for the second and third phases of the truce would begin on the 16th day of the first phase. This will aim to free the other hostages still captive in Gaza, that is to say the men and soldiers. The bodies of the deceased hostages would also be returned, continues the Reuters agency.
In exchange, Israel would release other Palestinian prisoners and withdraw from Palestinian territory in order to achieve a lasting ceasefire, according to Euronews which indicates that certain points still remain to be discussed, without specifying which ones.
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The third phase would concern the longer term, for example the reconstruction and governance of Gaza. But for now, no very concrete details have filtered out on this subject.
