Israel, Hamas reach ceasefire deal to end 15 months of war in Gaza

DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM(Reuters): Hamas and Israel reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that mediators said would take effect on Sunday and include a release of hostages held there during 15 months of bloodshed that devastated the Palestinian enclave and inflamed the Middle East.

The complex phased accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed. Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

At a news conference in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the ceasefire would take effect on Sunday. Negotiators are working with Israel and Hamas on steps to implement the deal, he said.

“This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in Washington.

Israel’s acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country’s security cabinet and government, with votes slated for Thursday, an Israeli official said.

The accord was expected to win approval despite opposition from some hardliners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who repeated his condemnation of the agreement on Wednesday.

Netanyahu called Biden and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to thank them and said he would visit Washington soon, his office said.

The agreement calls for a surge in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the “priority now must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by this conflict.”

Both the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they were preparing to massively scale up their aid operations.

The pact follows months of tortuous, on-off negotiations conducted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and comes just ahead of Trump’s presidential inauguration on Monday.

Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli border-area communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting over 250 foreign and Israeli hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s air and ground war in Gaza has since killed over 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people struggling through the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters.