What are the terms of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement?

After 15 months of devastating war, Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a cease-fire deal that will halt the conflict in Gaza and ensure the release of the 98 remaining hostages held by the militants in the strip.

The multi-stage agreement – brokered and guaranteed by the United States, Egypt and Qatar – will mark the first ceasefire since a one-week truce in November 2023. It is due to start taking effect on Sunday.

If implemented in full, it would permanently end the war that began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on the Jewish state.

How will the ceasefire begin?

The agreement calls for an initial six-week ceasefire, in which both sides stop fighting. The Israeli army will begin redeploying eastwards out of urban centers across Gaza, the deal says, to what Israel has described as “buffer zones” it holds on the Palestinian side of the border

Critically, at the end of the first stage, the agreement also requires Israeli troops to leave the critical road called the Netzarim Corridor that separates the north of the strip from the south, and to leave the border of Gaza with the Egypt in 50 days.

According to the terms, the Rafah border crossing connecting Gaza with Egypt, which was taken by Israel last May and mostly destroyed, is expected to be reopened. That will revive the strip’s only link with the outside world that was not directly controlled by Israel before the war.

Will the Palestinians be allowed to go home?

Residents of Gaza will be allowed to return to what remains of their homes, including Palestinians displaced from north to south Gaza during the war, a population estimated at hundreds of thousands.

An Israeli official said Israel insisted that “security measures” run by an unnamed private company be put in place at checkpoints leading from the south to the north. They aimed to ensure that the militants cannot return to northern Gaza, from which Hamas launched many of its attacks on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

The agreement also requires Israel to allow 600 loads of humanitarian aid every day into the destroyed territory, half of which would be allocated to northern Gaza, where people have suffered acute hunger, according to international observers.

The north has been hardest hit by Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive, which has killed more than 46,000 people, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled territory, and reduced much of the strip to rubble.

International aid groups have said that the infrastructure to get food, medicine, fuel and other goods into Gaza will have to be scaled up substantially, as the amounts set out in the agreement will increase the amount entering the strip at least three times.

Which hostages held in Gaza will be released?

For Israel, the crucial victory in the first stage of the agreement is the return of 33 hostages still held by Hamas, including children, civilian women, female soldiers, over 50 and wounded.

It is not clear how many people who meet these criteria remain alive, although an Israeli official said this week that “many of them, most of them” were still alive.

Under the deal, three female hostages were released on Sunday, followed by at least three more prisoners every seven days. Crucially for Israel, the living hostages will be released first, followed by the dead towards the end of the six-week period.

What about the Palestinian prisoners?

For every civilian hostage freed, Israel has pledged to release 30 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, with the number rising to 50 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli soldier. During this stage, the focus will be on the release of Gazans who were arrested during the war, but not involved in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

More than 100 Palestinians serving life on charges of murder and terrorism will also be released, with some exiled to third countries.

Between 1,000 and 1,650 Palestinians are expected to be released during this stage of the deal, depending on the number of living hostages finally released from Gaza.

Need more details to agree?

Later on the 16th day of the ceasefire, the parties will begin negotiations on the second – and probably more difficult – stage: the release of the remaining 65 hostages, all men under 50, including soldiers, in exchange for an Israeli flood. withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire.

The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for each Israeli soldier is likely to be much higher in this second stage, which is expected to last six weeks.

Negotiators also discussed a potential third stage of the deal, in which bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinian militants would be returned, and reconstruction of Gaza It will begin under the supervision of Qatar, Egypt and the UN. There is a growing possibility that the second and third stages will happen, however, analysts said.

Could the ceasefire collapse?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he is not willing to fully end the war until he has achieved “total victory” and the complete “destruction” of Hamas.

That makes resuming the fight after the initial six-week hiatus a distinct possibility.

However, international pressure – potentially including the entry of the US administration of Donald Trump, who has claimed credit for the ceasefire – may force the veteran Israeli leader to continue implementing the ceasefire agreement. fire beyond the first stage and to completely stop the war.

Mapping and data visualization by Aditi Bhandari