Hamas and Israel have signed an agreement to cease fire and exchange prisoners. In the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza, Hamas will free Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The deal, finalised following indirect talks in the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, was greeted with celebrations among Palestinians and Israelis alike. Besides the release of captives and prisoners, the deal allows large-scale flow of aid into Gaza after more than two years of genocide after Tel Aviv started bombing the Palestinian enclave following Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
Qatar, which helped broker the deal along with Egypt, the United States and Turkiye, said the deal was the “first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid. “All hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
As per the agreement, Hamas will release 20 living captives at the same time as part of the first phase of the deal, while Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners: 250 among those serving life sentences and 1,700 others detained since the start of the war. A daily minimum of 400 trucks of aid will enter the Gaza Strip for the first five days of the ceasefire, to be increased in following days. The plan also provides for the return of displaced persons from the south of the Gaza Strip to Gaza City and the north immediately. The deal stipulates “scheduled withdrawals” of Israeli troops, and includes “guarantees from President Trump and the mediators”.
Following the agreement Hamas called in an official statement on Trump to compel Israel to fully implement the deal and “not allow it to evade or procrastinate in implementing what has been agreed”. While this is a partial deal, a notable difference from previous ceasefire arrangements is that there is no deadline for concluding a full deal. It does not set a deadline of a few weeks, after which hostilities could resume if talks falter. It may be added here that some extremists in Netanyahu’s religious nationalist coalition are already talking of more fighting. For example, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a staunch opponent of any concession to Palestinians, has called for Hamas to be destroyed after the captives are returned.
Although there is a sense of relief in Gaza that the bombing is finally over, the slaughter of the last two years has left deep scars on the bodies and minds of the people in the war-ravaged zone. Some Gazans have lost their entire families, while others mourn a child, a sibling, a parent, a spouse or a friend killed by the Zionist invaders. Apart from humanitarian aid to overcome the effects of the acute famine inflicted on the territory, the traumatised men, women and children will need professional psychiatric help to come out of their state of shock The restoration of normal life is a monumental task which will take years and massive uplift efforts to be completed. Calling for full access for humanitarian workers in Gaza, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations was ready to help and “prepared to move now”.
Trump’s plan also calls for an international stabilisation force, which could start taking shape after a meeting of European ministers and top officials from Arab states in Paris. Issues such as future governance of Gaza, reconstruction and demilitarisation are yet to be sorted out. At the moment the main question is how long the ceasefire will last. It is quite possible that the Israelis may restart their genocidal campaign once the Israeli prisoners are freed. If this happens, Donald Trump will be held responsible for the betrayal and the resumption of another round of holocaust in Gaza.
There are other flaws in the plan which raise doubt about its eventual success. For example, it is not clear if Hamas will surrender its arms and who will govern Gaza in the interim period and later on. Palestinian groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP, have declared that they will not accept ‘foreign guardianship’ of Gaza, as hinted at by US President Trump. This has importance in the context of the next phase of Trump’s plan which calls for an international body led by Trump and including former British prime minister Tony Blair to play a role in Gaza’s post-war administration.
Another sticking point is that Netanyahu, Trump, Western and Arab states have ruled out a role for Hamas, which has run Gaza since driving out Palestinian rivals in 2007. But Hamas’ stand is that it would relinquish Gaza governance only to a Palestinian technocrat government supervised by the Palestinian Authority and backed by Arab and Muslim countries. Looking ahead, the Gaza deal is only the first step and it will make sense if it leads to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Until justice is done to the Palestinians and their right to nationhood is recognised and honoured, peace will be elusive and the Middle East will remain unstable and mired in endless conflict.