Celebrations erupt over Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza

TEL AVIV — After two years of devastating war that killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and pulverized much of Gaza into an apocalyptic moonscape, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a deal involving an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees.

Although Israel has not yet formally ratified the agreement, it is expected to do so on Thursday evening and celebrations have already erupted in the country. The news was greeted with relief and joy in Gaza, where Hamas said the deal would end the war and lead to Israel’s complete withdrawal from the enclave and the entry of desperately needed aid.

The agreement ends months of tortuous ceasefire negotiations and marks the outcome of a fight that marked a generation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On Wednesday, on his social media platform Truth Social, President Trump announced that the two sides had signed “the first phase of our peace plan,” which would involve the exchange of hostages and detainees as well as the withdrawal of the Israeli military from parts of Gaza – “the first steps toward a strong, lasting and everlasting peace,” according to Trump.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” he wrote.

News of the deal sparked celebrations across Gaza, with residents exhausted by Israel’s merciless assault that upended their lives, wiped out entire families and brought famine to the enclave, expressing cautious hope.

“I never thought I’d see this day. We’ve been wanting this to happen for months now, and then all of a sudden it happened so quickly,” said Ali al-Azab, 34, from the central enclave town of Deir Al-Balah.

“We have lived in fear for so long, waiting for the next bomb and the loss of another friend. But I also know that the war is not over yet.”

News of the ceasefire broke early Thursday morning in Gaza, while Mohammad Rajab, 62, was still sleeping. His son-in-law, he said, was the first to hear the good news.

“We are like drowning people clutching at straws,” he said, adding that the ceasefire meant for him the chance “to return to normal life.”

In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, the area of ​​this coastal city that has become the de facto staging point for large-scale Israeli protests to end the war and bring hostages home, the mood was jubilant Thursday, with people dancing and waving Israeli and American flags.

Many wore stickers on their shirts with the words “They’re Coming Back,” referring to the hostages, replacing stickers that previously represented the number of days they had spent in captivity. At one point, a man blew a shofar, the traditional musical horn used in Jewish rituals, to applause from the crowd.

Udi Goren, 44, a travel photographer whose cousin, Tal Haimi, 44, was killed on October 7, 2023 and taken to Gaza, said his “first instinct was a sigh of relief.”

“For the first morning in two years, we can actually have a real smile because we finally see the end: the end of the war, the fallen soldiers, the tortured and starving hostages, the horrible sights of Gaza. »

He credited Trump with pressuring the warring parties to complete the deal.

“There was no real intervention until we just saw President Trump finally say enough is enough,” he said.

The deal, which is more of a framework centered on a 20-point plan released by Trump last week, would see the release of all 48 hostages – 20 of them alive, the rest dead. Hamas officials have said in recent interviews that recovering the bodies of dead hostages will take time because many are in collapsed or bombed tunnels or under rubble. Those still alive could be released as early as Sunday or Monday.

Israel will release 1,700 Gazans detained during the war, as well as 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel. For every Israeli body returned, Israel will release the bodies of 15 Gazans.

Hamas said Thursday that it had given the mediators the list of prisoners to be released and would announce the names once they were agreed.

Earlier reports claimed the ceasefire had already begun, but Israeli airstrikes and artillery continued to pound the enclave on Thursday, with health authorities in the enclave saying at least 10 people had been killed and dozens more injured.

Footage taken by Qatari channel Al Jazeera shows tanks shelling Gaza’s main coastal road to prevent Palestinians from gathering in the area. Civil defense teams warned people trying to return to the north of the enclave and received confirmation of the departure of Israeli forces.

In a statement to the Israeli daily Times of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire would begin Thursday evening after the government formally ratified the agreement. The government is expected to vote on the deal at 6 p.m. local time, according to Israeli media.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it had “begun operational preparations ahead of the implementation of the agreement” and would “soon” adjust its deployment lines. Meanwhile, the army was still “deployed in the area”, he said, and the Arabic-language military spokesman said in a statement that Gaza City was still surrounded by the army and it was dangerous to return.

The ceasefire will be accompanied by a flow of aid to the enclave, a crucial part of the deal intended to ease a crushing months-long Israeli blockade that had triggered famine in parts of the enclave, according to humanitarian groups and experts. Humanitarian groups and the Palestinian Health Ministry have said more than 400 people have died of starvation in recent months.

Writing on X, Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said the group was “on the ground and ready to scale up operations.”

“But we must act NOW – there is no time to waste,” she wrote.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched a blitzkrieg attack in southern Israel, leaving 1,200 people — two-thirds of whom were civilians, according to Israeli authorities — and kidnapping some 250 others.

In retaliation, Israel launched a furious response that has so far killed 67,183 people, more than 3% of the enclave’s population and including 20,179 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Although it does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, its figures are considered reliable.

Yet much remains unclear, including the fate of Hamas’s arsenal and what kind of presence, if any, Israel will maintain in the enclave.

Speaking to Qatar’s Al-Araby TV, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel would withdraw militarily from all populated areas of Gaza, including Khan Yunis, Rafah and Gaza City, by Friday. Another spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday that the group would no longer be part of Gaza’s governance in the future. but that the group’s weapons were to “guarantee the independence of Palestinian decision-making.”

Other Hamas officials said the weapons handover would only take place as part of a move toward an independent Palestinian state.

Despite Trump’s rhetoric, the deal remains far from the comprehensive peace deal he promised. And his success raises thornier questions for Netanyahu, a leader deeply unpopular with many Israelis and whom his critics accuse of prolonging the war to ensure his political survival at the expense of the lives of the hostages.

Implementation of the deal risks alienating his right-wing allies in the government, including extremist figures such as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has called for Gaza to be emptied of Palestinians. He said in a statement on X that he would vote against the deal.

He added that the government had “an enormous obligation to ensure that we do not return to the Oslo path”, referring to the Oslo peace process, and become “addicted again to artificial calm, diplomatic hugs and smiley ceremonies, while mortgaging the future and paying horrible prices”.

In Hostages Square, Israelis demonstrated their anger at Netanyahu and others associated with his leaders during the war. When Benny Gantz, an Israeli opposition leader who served in Netanyahu’s cabinet until last year, walked through the crowd, hecklers shouted at him to “go home,” accusing him of claiming success he did not deserve.

“When the war started, Gantz joined Bibi and saved him instead of bringing down his government,” said Einat Mastbaum, a 50-year-old Hebrew teacher, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

However, even the presence of politicians could not harm the happiness of the crowd, according to Mastbaum, who has been coming to the Place des Otages every week for two years.

“I’m so excited,” she said, her voice cracking as tears appeared in her eyes.

“Today I cry from happiness and hope, not from sadness.”

Times editor Bulos reported from Tel Aviv. Special correspondent Bilal Shbeir contributed from Al-Balah in the Gaza Strip.