What are the terms of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal?

After 15 months of devastating war, Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a ceasefire that would end the conflict in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining 98 hostages held by the militants in the strip.

The multi-stage agreement, brokered and guaranteed by the US, Egypt and Qatar, will mark the first ceasefire since a week-long cease-fire in November 2023. It will take effect on Sunday.

If fully implemented, it will forever end the war that began on October 7, 2023 with Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state.

How will the ceasefire begin?

The accord calls for an initial six-week truce in which both sides will stop fighting. Israeli forces will begin redeploying east of Gaza’s urban centers in what Israel has described as “buffer zones” it will maintain on the Palestinian side of the border.

Importantly, at the end of the first phase, the agreement also calls for Israeli troops to leave the main route known as the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the north of the strip from the south, and to leave Gaza’s border with Egypt within 50 days.

Under the terms, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which was captured by Israel last May and largely destroyed, is expected to reopen. It would revive the strip’s only link with the outside world, which before the war was not directly controlled by Israel.

Will the Palestinians be allowed to go home?

Gazans will be allowed to return to what is left of their homes, including Palestinians displaced from southern northern Gaza during the war, a population estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

An Israeli official said Israel had insisted that “security arrangements” run by an unnamed private company should be put in place at checkpoints leading from the south to the north, aimed at ensuring the return of militants to the northern Gaza Strip from where Hamas began in 2023. most of its attacks on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

The accord also requires Israel to allow 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid into the torn-off territory each day, half of which will go to the northern Gaza Strip, where people are facing acute hunger, according to international monitors.

The north has been hardest hit by Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive, which has killed more than 46,000 people, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled area, and reduced much of the strip to rubble.

International aid groups say the infrastructure to get food, medicine, fuel and other goods into Gaza must be substantially increased, as the quantities in the deal would at least triple the cost of entering the strip.

Which hostages held in Gaza will be released?

A crucial victory for Israel in the first phase of the deal is the return of 33 hostages still held by Hamas, including children, civilian women, female soldiers, the over-50s and the wounded.

It remains unclear how many people who meet these criteria remain alive, although an Israeli official said this week that “many of them, many of them” still do.

Under the deal, three female hostages are to be released on Sunday, followed by at least three captives every seven days.It is crucial for Israel that the live hostages be released first, followed by the dead at the end of the six-week period.

And what about the Palestinian detainees?

For every civilian hostage released, Israel has pledged to release 30 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, bringing the figure to 50 Palestinian detainees for every female Israeli soldier. but were not involved in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.

More than 100 Palestinians serving life sentences for murder and terrorism will also be released, some exiled to third countries.

Between 1,000 and 1,650 Palestinians are expected to be released in this phase of the deal, depending on the number of live hostages ultimately released from Gaza.

Do more details need to be agreed?

No later than the 16th day of the cease-fire, the parties are to begin negotiations on a second, and possibly more difficult, phase: the release of the remaining 65 hostages, all men under the age of 50, including soldiers, in full in exchange for Israel. withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire.

The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released for every Israeli soldier is likely to be much higher in this second phase, which is expected to last six weeks.

The talks also discussed a possible third phase of the deal, in which the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinian militants would be returned, and Reconstruction of Gaza will begin under the supervision of Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations. There is an increasing likelihood that the second and third phases will be combined, however, analysts believe.

Can the ceasefire collapse?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said he is not ready to completely end the war until he achieves “total victory” and the complete “destruction” of Hamas.

That makes a resumption of fighting after an initial six-week ceasefire a distinct possibility.

Still, international pressure, including from the incoming administration of Donald Trump, which has expressed confidence in the cease-fire, could force Israel’s veteran leader to extend the ceasefire agreement beyond the first phase and end the war altogether.

Mapping and data visualization by Aditi Bhandari