Hamas approved the agreement on a truce in Gaza on Wednesday, sources close to the accelerating talks in Qatar said, aimed at ending 15 months of a deadly war with Israel.
The Palestinian Islamist movement and its ally Islamic Jihad approved the agreement on a ceasefire as well as an exchange of prisoners for Israeli hostages, according to two sources close to the negotiators meeting in Doha.
A few days before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, indirect discussions intensified with a view to a truce associated with the release of hostages held in the Palestinian territory since the bloody Hamas attack against Israel on the 7th. October 2023.
This attack sparked a war that left tens of thousands dead and reduced much of the territory to ruins.
“The resistance groups reached an agreement among themselves” and “informed the mediators,” said one of the sources contacted by AFP by telephone from Cairo on Wednesday. Another Palestinian source close to the discussions confirmed these comments.
Qatar, the main mediating country with the United States and Egypt, said on Tuesday that negotiations were “at the final stage” and that the “main issues” had been resolved, hoping for an agreement “very soon”.
According to two sources close to Hamas, 33 hostages should be released during a first phase, in exchange for a thousand Palestinians detained by Israel. The hostages would be released “in groups, starting with children and women.”
The Israeli government confirmed on Tuesday that it was seeking the release of “33 hostages” during the first stage and was prepared to release “hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners.
“Time is running out”
While an agreement could be imminent, Israel is increasing deadly strikes on the Gaza Strip, claiming to target Hamas fighters.
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, 24 people were killed, according to emergency services, notably in Deir el-Balah, in the center of the territory, and in Gaza City, in the north, where a strike hit a school housing displaced.
In Deir el-Balah, Nadia Madi, a displaced person, prayed for “a truce to be declared.”
“I am ready to rebuild my life in the middle of the rubble,” assured this woman who fled her home like almost all of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the besieged territory, and has not seen her family “since more than a year.
A single one-week truce was observed at the end of November 2023 and negotiations since have been met with intransigence from both camps.
But talks have intensified in the run-up to Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency on January 20, amid increased international pressure on the various parties.
Donald Trump recently promised “hell” to the region if the hostages were not released before his return.
“Time is running out, the living hostages will eventually die. Dead hostages risk being lost. We must act now,” said Gil Dickman, cousin of hostage Carmel Gat, during a rally Tuesday evening in Jerusalem.
Of 251 people kidnapped during the attack on October 7, 2023, 94 are still held hostage in Gaza, 34 of whom died according to the Israeli army.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
At least 46,707 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli military campaign of retaliation in the Gaza Strip, including 62 in 24 hours, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the United Nations.
Zone tampon
An Israeli official said Tuesday that negotiations for the second phase of the deal would begin on the 16th day after the start of the first phase.
This second phase will concern the release of the last hostages, “i.e. soldiers and men of age to be mobilized”, as well as the return of the bodies of dead hostages, according to the Times of Israel.
But an Israeli official said Tuesday that Israel would “not leave Gaza until all the hostages have returned, the living and the dead.”
According to Israeli media, Israel will be able to maintain a “buffer zone” from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip during the first phase.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken proposed on Tuesday sending an international security force to Gaza and placing the territory under UN responsibility.
He said the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative authority in the occupied West Bank, should regain control of Gaza in the future.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said Wednesday that the international community must maintain pressure on Israel to accept the creation of a Palestinian state after a truce.
Israel “must understand what is just and what is unjust, and that the power to veto peace and the Palestinian state will no longer be accepted or tolerated,” he said.
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