Gaza truce begins tomorrow; 33 Israelis, 700 Palestinians to be freed

Israel and Hamas have finally agreed to a six-week truce in Gaza that will go into effect on Sunday (January 19), with the Palestinian group releasing 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 730 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

The first phase of the ceasefire accord, which followed months of mediation by Qatar and Egypt along with US officials, will last for 42 days during which some of the hundreds of thousands displaced in Gaza will begin returning home.

Death toll

The truce will provide a badly needed pause to the 15-month horrific Israeli war on Gaza triggered by the audacious Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 when some 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 250 taken hostage.

The Israeli military campaign that followed in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, mostly civilians, and left much of the strip in ruins and displaced most of its pre-war population of 2.3 million.

Also read: If the Gaza ceasefire holds, India should not lag on reconstruction

The swap

Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said the 33 Israelis to be feed in the first phase will include women and female soldiers, children, elderly and the wounded.

AFP quoted Hamas sources as saying that three Israeli women soldiers would be the first ones to be released on Sunday evening.

Palestinian prisoners

Israel’s justice ministry said 737 Palestinian prisoners and detainees would be released in the first phase of the Gaza deal. The list was published on Saturday, hours after Israel’s full cabinet approved the ceasefire deal.

The Times of Israel said the Palestinians to be release include “numerous terrorists serving life sentences for murder, among them members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah movement”.

Also read: Hamas, Israel peace welcome but underlying conflict can undermine deal

Medical tests

Three points have been set up for the release of the Israeli hostages, who will undergo medical check-up before being transported to hospitals.

During the truce, Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza's densely populated areas.

Israeli military presence

While the Israeli military will step back from specific locations and routes in the Gaza Strip, people won’t be allowed to return to areas where Israeli troops are deployed or near the Israel-Gaza border.

Israel would also maintain a buffer zone within Gaza.

While Israeli troops won't fully withdraw from Gaza until all hostages were returned, it would let displaced Palestinians to return through an electronic checkpoint with cameras in the meantime.

Also watch: Israel, Hamas agree to end war in Gaza; will ceasefire last?

Qatari leader

An Israeli official earlier said that negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire agreement would start on the 16th day of the first phase's implementation.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed, meanwhile, said that the mediating countries, Qatar, Egypt and the US, would closely monitor the truce through a body based in Cairo.

There was a "clear mechanism to negotiate phase two and three", he added. “We hope that this will be the last page of the war and we hope all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement."