It took two days of unbearable waiting for the truce to finally be validated by the Israeli authorities, this Saturday, January 18. Prolonging false suspense for the hostage families and the more than 2 million Gazans still threatened by IDF bombs. They will have caused nearly 200 more deaths since Wednesday. And will continue this weekend to extend the sad count of the Gaza Ministry of Health, which exceeds 46,800 victims, by taking away the last lives which will have lasted fifteen months, known the hope of the ceasefire, to finally going out just before the truce comes to fruition this Sunday.
The Israeli security cabinet, then the Council of Ministers, chaired by Benjamin Netanyahu, finally approved the truce agreement announced Wednesday by the Prime Minister of Qatar and the Egyptian and North American mediators. Hamas has already announced that it has approved the terms of the agreement and is committed to respecting them. Epilogue of two days of procrastination which had as much to do with the internal political debate in Israel – and the outrageous opposition of far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who threatened to leave the government, to the agreement – as final negotiations around the identity of the Palestinian prisoners who must be released in exchange for the Hamas hostages.
Two French hostages
The first phase of this truce must therefore last six weeks, starting Sunday at 7:30 a.m. (Paris time) announced this Saturday the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and allow the release, in dribs and drabs, of 33 people kidnapped on October 7 during the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel, against 737 detained in the prisons of the Hebrew state, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Justice, who specified that their release would not take place before 3 p.m. Sunday. Three people must be released with the help of the Red Cross this weekend and the others will follow on a weekly basis. According to an Israeli military official, three reception points have been set up on the border with Gaza, from where the hostages, cared for by doctors, will be taken to hospitals.
According to an Israeli official, cited by numerous media, the first hostages released will be the women, children and men over 50 who are still alive. From Lebanon where he was making a lightning visit, Emmanuel Macron assured that the two French hostages still detained in the Palestinian enclave, Ofer Kalderon, 53, and Ohad Yahalomi, 50, are concerned. Both had been kidnapped in kibbutz Nir Oz with several of their children, released during the first truce in November 2023. Likewise, according to Washington, as two Americans: Keith Siegel and Sagui Dekel-Chen.
It is also possible that some of the hostages released in the next forty-two days may already be dead. We can see in a first list of 33 names, relayed by the Haaretz, around ten men under 50 who do not seem to meet the criteria. Unless they are released as a priority because they are seriously injured. Same doubt for the Bibas family, whose youngest son, Kfir, was only a few months old when he was kidnapped. They appear on the list, even though Hamas has repeatedly assured that they were killed in an Israeli strike – something the IDF denies. If he survived, the youngest hostage would have been 2 years old these days.
-As for the Palestinian prisoners, they will be gathered in the prisons of Shikma (in the south of Israel) and Ofer (near Ramallah), according to the Israeli prison service. All will then be transferred to Jerusalem and the West Bank aboard Israeli buses “to avoid any expression of joy in the territory”. The government published a first list of 95 names for the first exchange. Mainly women of all ages and young men, most of whom have been arrested since the end of 2023 for “apology of terrorism” or isolated attacks with a knife or handgun.
Among the prisoners expected to be released is Zakaria Zubeidi, responsible for several attacks against Israeli civilians and former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah party, who escaped from prison Israeli in 2021.
New negotiations in two weeks
At the same time, humanitarian aid, largely blocked in recent months, will be able to enter the Palestinian enclave more massively. Since Thursday, it has been flowing into the Egyptian town of Rafah, where a corridor could be opened, and to the Israeli crossing point of Kerem Shalom. The agreement provides for 600 trucks to enter each day, compared to 50 to 60 currently according to MSF. Humanitarian organizations warn of the logistical complexity of this distribution, which risks taking time in a ruined enclave, where more than two thirds of the buildings have been destroyed according to the UN.
Another challenge: making the agreement last. Only the first phase has so far been approved. The next two, which must see the release of all the remaining hostages, living and dead – i.e. 64 people according to a count of Checknews –, and the start of the reconstruction of Gaza, must be the subject of new negotiations in two weeks. And the Israeli extreme right, strong against any type of agreement, threatens to use all its weight to derail the cessation of fighting.
