The ceasefire agreement reached this Wednesday after months of negotiations between Hamas and Israel barely modifies the approaches already reached between both parties in the month of May. However, on this occasion the signing was possible just a few days after the presidential exchange in the White House.
The agreement will consist of three different phases, two of which will only begin to be negotiated within two weeks. The first of them would begin, if everything goes as planned, on Sunday, January 19.
First phase of the agreement
It will start on Sunday, January 19 and will run for a period of seven full weeks, during which Hamas to free 33 Israeli hostages. In exchange, Israeli troops will gradually withdraw of the populated centers of Gaza – they will create a ‘buffer zone’ along the northern and eastern border – they will allow the return of unarmed Gazans to the north and will release a still undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners.
- Day 1: The Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, confirmed this Wednesday that humanitarian aid will be delivered to the Palestinian population in a “massive” way. Hamas would release three hostages on the first day of the ceasefire agreement, after which it would begin to withdraw its forces from populated areas of the Strip.
- Day 7: On the seventh day, Hamas would release four more hostages, while Israel would allow displaced Palestinians to return on foot to northern Gaza.
- Day 14: Release of three more Israeli hostages.
- Day 16: Once the first 15 days of the ceasefire have been completed, the second phase of the agreement will begin to be negotiated on the 16th with the objective of achieving the release of the rest of the hostages, including the lifeless bodies of those already deceased.
- Day 21: Release of three Israeli hostages.
- Day 28: Release of three Israeli hostages.
- Day 35: Release of three Israeli hostages.
- Day 42: Release of the remaining 14 Israeli hostages and completion of the first phase of the ceasefire.
The agreement also contemplates the release of up to a thousand Palestinian prisoners. According to sources from the Israeli Executive cited by the newspaper Haaretzthe final number of Palestinian prisoners released will depend on the status of the Israeli hostages.
In total, during the first phase, which would last 42 days, 33 hostages would be released, all of them alive, the Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed on Tuesday. Reuters has reported that Hamas will first release female hostages and youth under 19 years of age. As reported by US President Joe Biden, all American hostages will be released in this first phase.
Israel, for its part, has committed to releasing in the first seven weeks all Palestinian women and children under the age of 19 detained since October 7, 2023, according to Reuters.
The Israeli military would remain during this time in the Philadelphia corridor, a strip 14 kilometers long and about a hundred meters wide that runs parallel to the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and would maintain an unpopulated area of 800 meters along it. along the northern and eastern borders with Israel.
Second and third phase
As reported this Wednesday by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in the second and third phases Israel and Hamas will have to negotiate the departure of the troops from the Philadelphia corridor “in a period of six weeks.”
“During those six weeks we have to negotiate to reach a permanent ceasefire so that Israel withdraws all its forces from Gaza and Hamas does not re-enter” Israeli territory. Blinken added that “the necessary governance, security and reconstruction agreements must then be established so that Gaza can move forward. Is that resolved? No,” he said in his first public reaction to the ceasefire agreement.
“There are several details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two, but the plan says that if the negotiations last more than six weeks, the ceasefire will continue while those continue,” President Biden later detailed during an appearance. public.
Ratification and supervision of the agreement
Despite everything, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman recalled this Tuesday that, once the agreement is closed, the Government of Israel will have to vote on its application, as happened with the 2023 ceasefire, although unanimity is not required. .
The Israeli extreme right has been pressing for days to try to stop any agreement. The Minister of National Security, the Ultra Itamar Ben-Gvir, has threatened to resign and has encouraged his colleague, Bezalel Smotrich, the Ultra Minister of Finance, to do the same, which would jeopardize the continuity of Netanyahu’s government.
“Last year we managed, thanks to our political power, to prevent this agreement from being carried out,” said Ben-Gvir, despite the fact that Israel has always blamed Hamas for not reaching the ceasefire. “Since then, however, other parties that support the agreement have joined the Government, and we are no longer the decisive factor.”
For their part, the main mediators during the war, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, will establish a joint team in Cairo to monitor the ceasefire and will supervise the implementation of the agreements. In addition, a “complaint mechanism” will be incorporated to report any possible violation of the pact, which “will be addressed in very early stages,” as detailed by the Qatari prime minister.
Source: www.eldiario.es
