The agreement fiercely negotiated by international mediators, Qatar, United States and Egypt, and concluded a few days before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, provides for an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Published on 15/01/2025 19:31
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International pressure eventually bore fruit. Israel and Hamas accepted, on Wednesday January 15, an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, ending 15 months of war, announced a source close to the discussions, cited by the ‘AFP. The information was also relayed by Donald Trump and a senior American official while the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified that questions remained “to settle” in the ceasefire agreement with Hamas but which he hoped to conclude “this night”.
The agreement fiercely negotiated by international mediators, Qatar, United States and Egypt, and concluded a few days before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, provides for an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
In a first phase, 33 hostages should be released in exchange for a thousand Palestinians detained by Israel, according to two sources close to the negotiations. The hostages would be released “in groups, starting with children and women”.
The second phase will concern the release of the last hostages, “soldiers and men of age to be mobilized”as well as the return of the bodies of dead hostages, according to the daily Times of Israel. However, an Israeli official warned on Tuesday that Israel would not leave “No Gaza until all the hostages are returned, the living and the dead”.
Of 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 2023, 94 are still held hostage in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead according to the Israeli army.
