The agreement on a truce in Gaza and releases of hostages must come into force on Sunday morning, the day after its approval by Israel, after 15 months of a devastating war which left tens of thousands dead in the Palestinian territory .
The ceasefire will begin at 8:30 a.m. local time (06:30 GMT), on the eve of Monday’s inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, Qatar, one of the mediators with Egypt and the United States, announced on Saturday. United, who managed to secure this agreement after more than a year of laborious negotiations.
In a first phase spread over six weeks, hostilities must cease and 33 hostages held in Gaza must be released in exchange for 737 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Announced on 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 an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, during which the hostages were kidnapped.
| © AFP The Gaza Strip |
But while waiting for the truce to begin, the Israeli army continued its strikes on the Gaza Strip which have left more than 120 dead since Wednesday, according to emergency services.
On Saturday, five members of the same family of displaced Palestinians died in a strike which hit their tent in Khan Younes (south), according to Civil Defense. AFP images showed relatives lamenting over bodies including that of a child at Nasser hospital.
“The beginning of the end”
| © AFP Family members of Israeli hostages held in Gaza make a statement to the media in Tel Aviv, January 17, 2025 |
The Israeli government approved the agreement before dawn, after the green light from Hamas, considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Hostages will be released on Sunday, the Israeli government announced, without specifying their number or at what time.
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 2:00 p.m. GMT, according to the Ministry of Justice.
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 the Fatah party, arrested and imprisoned in 2019.
Two Franco-Israelis, Ofer Kalderon, 54, and Ohad Yahalomi, 50, are among the 33 hostages available for release, 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 am happy that this is the beginning of the end and I hope that as many hostages as possible will return. This is the most important thing at the moment. This is perhaps the beginning of the end of the suffering for the two parts, I hope,” said Be?eri Yemini, a student living in Jerusalem.
“On the rubble of my house”
 | © AFP Palestinians recite the prayer for the dead in front of the bodies of people killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Youne in the southern Gaza Strip, January 18, 2025 |
In the Gaza Strip ravaged by aerial bombardments and the ground offensive of the Israeli army in retaliation for the October 7 attack, the displaced, the vast majority of some 2.4 million Palestinians, are preparing to return at their home.
“I want to return home and set up my tent on the rubble of my house,” said Oum Khalil Bakr, who fled Gaza City for Nousseirat. “We know it will be cold and we won’t have blankets to sleep on, but what matters is returning to our land.”
Many “will find their entire neighborhood destroyed,” said Mohamed Khatib, of the Medical Aid for Palestine organization in Gaza: “The suffering will continue but at least there is hope.”
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.
 | © AFP Gaza Strip: children suffering from malnutrition |
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. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 94 are still hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead according to the army.
At least 46,899 people, mostly civilians, were 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.
Trois phases
 | © AFP A man walks past tents for displaced people set up near destroyed buildings in Bureij, in the central Gaza Strip, January 17, 2025 |
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.
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.
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.
