Israel and Hamas reach deal to end Gaza war and free hostages

Negotiators reached a phased deal on Wednesday to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, after 15 months of conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and inflamed the Middle East.

The accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The deal will take effect on Jan 19, Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani announced. Qatar, together with Egypt and the U.S. brokered the deal.

Phase one entails the release of 33 Israeli hostages including all women, children and men over 50. Israel will release Palestinian prisoners in return.

Negotiations on implementing the second phase will begin by the 16th day of phase one and it is expected to include the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The third phase is expected to address the return of all remaining dead bodies and the start of Gaza's reconstruction supervised by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.

The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations conducted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and comes just ahead of the January 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Announcing the deal, outgoing president Joe Biden claimed credit, saying it was the same deal he had first put forward in May.

United Nations Secretary general António Guterres was among world leaders welcoming the breakthrough. He urged both sides to take the opportunity to set out a brighter future for the region and called for the implementation of a two-state solution which would see Palestinians running their own affairs as part of an independent country.

If successful, the planned phased ceasefire could halt fighting that has left much of Gaza in ruins, displaced most of the enclave's pre-war population of 2.3 million, and killed tens of thousands of people. The toll is still rising daily.

That in turn could defuse tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has stoked conflict in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between arch regional foes Israel and Iran.

Even if the warring sides implement the current deal, it will still require further negotiation before there is a lasting ceasefire and the release of all the hostages.

Massive task of reconstruction

If all goes smoothly, the Palestinians, Arab states and Israel still must agree on a vision for post-war Gaza, a formidable challenge involving security guarantees for Israel and billions of dollars in investment for rebuilding.

One unanswered question is who will run Gaza after the war. Israel has rejected any involvement by Hamas, which had ruled Gaza since 2007, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.

Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli border-area communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting over 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.

Israel's air and ground war in Gaza has since killed over 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and left the coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble with hundreds of thousands of displaced people struggling through the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters.

As his inauguration approached, Trump repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages were not released by the time he took office. His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff worked with President Joe Biden's team to push the deal over the line.

In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the October 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country's history.

Gaza's conflict spilled over across the Middle East, with Iranian-backed proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen targeting Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The deal emerged a few months after Israel eliminated the top leaders of Hamas and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah in assassinations that gave it the upper hand.