All major obstacles have been overcome and the last details could be resolved on Wednesday. After many previous statements about an agreement being near, Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Al-Thani could announce that the parties had reached an agreement.
The exact points of the agreement have not been made public in their entirety, but what has emerged is very similar to the draft that the news agency AP received in advance.
The mediators had hoped to reach an agreement in three phases, but so far, Israel and terrorist-stamped Hamas are only in agreement on the first, where the weapons will be laid down for 42 days – from 12 o'clock on Sunday.
Withdrawing
Hamas will gradually release 33 of around 100 hostages – women and children first. However, two men who have been imprisoned by Hamas since 2014 and 2015, respectively, will be released first.
In exchange, Israel will release at least 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians, of whom 1,000 are people from Gaza who were imprisoned after October 7, 2023 – but none who participated in Hamas' bloody attacks on Israel that day.
Besides this, much more aid and supplies will be allowed into the needy population in Gaza. According to the USA, over 500 trucks with aid will be allowed into Gaza every day.
The border crossing in Rafah – between Gaza and Egypt – will also be opened a week after the agreement takes effect.
Additional Phases
During the ceasefire, negotiations about the next phase will be conducted. The idea with phase two is more openly formulated: all remaining hostages who are alive will be released, Israel will withdraw all forces from Gaza, and a "sustainable calm" will be achieved.
USA President Joe Biden said during a press conference in Washington that the goal of phase two is to "get a permanent end to the war".
On Wednesday, it became clear that Hamas had gotten its demand through that the ceasefire will continue until an agreement on phase two is reached, which Israel had previously not given any guarantees about.
The draft AP saw also describes a third phase, where the remains of dead hostages will be handed over and a multi-year plan for rebuilding war-torn Gaza will be launched.
