Israel and Hamas announced on Wednesday the conclusion of an agreement providing for the release of 50 hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a four-day truce in the Palestinian territory, still targeted by Israeli strikes.
At 47e day of the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, Qatar, one of the mediators between the belligerents, confirmed at 3:30 a.m. GMT that a “humanitarian pause” would be announced “in the next 24 hours” and would last “four days, with the possibility of extension”.
Earlier in the night, the Israeli government announced that it had approved “in broad terms” an agreement for the release of at least 50 hostages, women and children, “for four days during which there will be a lull in the fighting,” according to a press release sent to AFP.
Hamas welcomed a “humanitarian truce” agreement.
Around 240 people were kidnapped on the day of the attack by Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, a territory of some 360 km2 still bombarded Wednesday by the Israeli army, according to local authorities and AFP images.
Doha has been working for weeks with Washington and Cairo to obtain the release of hostages in Gaza in exchange for that of Palestinian prisoners and a truce in the fighting in the Palestinian territory, faced with a total siege imposed by Israel and in the grip of to a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
” Good direction “
The Palestinian president welcomed the “humanitarian truce agreement”, according to a senior Palestinian Authority official, and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sissi welcomed the Palestinian “exchange of hostages for prisoners”. , after more than six weeks of a murderous war.
Internationally, the agreement was welcomed by many countries, with US President Joe Biden declaring himself “extraordinarily satisfied”. The UN called the news “an important step in the right direction, but much remains to be done.”
Washington expects three American nationals to be among the freed hostages, according to a senior White House official.
“Every day, a certain number of hostages will be released […] and this number should reach 50 on the fourth day of the truce, the spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majed Al-Ansari, told AFP.
According to Mr. Ansari, the agreement does not include the release of kidnapped soldiers and provides that there will be “no Israeli reconnaissance operation” during the transfer of the hostages.
The cessation of hostilities could take “some time” to be implemented on the ground, he warned.
A senior Hamas official told AFP he expected “a first exchange of 10 hostages for 30 prisoners to be carried out on Thursday”.
According to Hamas, 150 Palestinian prisoners, women and young people under the age of 19 must be released from Israeli prisons.
For its part, Israel released a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners likely to be released, 33 women, 123 adolescents between 14 and 17 years old, and 144 young people aged 18. Among these prisoners are 49 members of Hamas, according to Israel, which specifies an agreement in two phases.
First, 50 hostages on the Israeli side will be released, with in exchange 150 Palestinian prisoners released over four days, with a truce.
Then, other exchanges could take place, with one hostage on the Israeli side released for every three Palestinian prisoners released.
Furthermore, the humanitarian pause will allow the entry of “a greater number of humanitarian convoys and emergency aid, including fuel,” according to Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Who and when? »
On Tuesday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that a health “tragedy” was looming in the Gaza Strip, where water is “severely lacking” and the shortage of fuel risks causing “the collapse of sanitation services”.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the agreement on the hostages and the humanitarian truce, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus affirming however that a four-day break in the fighting was “not enough to end to the suffering of civilians.
In Israel, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, were killed, according to the authorities, in the Hamas attack of October 7, of a scale and violence unprecedented in the history of the country.
In retaliation, Israel promised to “annihilate” the Islamist movement and relentlessly shelled the Gaza Strip, where its army has been leading a ground offensive since October 27 against Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the Union European and Israel.
In the Palestinian territory, more than 14,000 people were killed in Israeli bombings, including more than 5,800 children, according to the Hamas government.
In Israel, the main association of families of hostages in Gaza declared itself “happy that a partial release is underway”, specifying however that it does not know for the moment “who will be released and when”.
“It gives me hope that my daughters will return,” said Maayan Zin, 50, a mother of two children held in Gaza. “If it’s not Thursday or Friday, then Sunday, Monday. »
On the Palestinian side, in the occupied West Bank, Mohammed Ziyaadah, whose 29-year-old sister is imprisoned, says he is “very happy” with her expected release. “It is an incomparable joy, we hope for the release of all the prisoners.”
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an NGO supporting them, around 7,000 Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel.
Continuation of the war
Despite this agreement for a short truce, the parties to the conflict say they remain on guard.
“We confirm that our hands will remain on the trigger and that our triumphant battalions will remain on the lookout,” Hamas warned.
“The Israeli government, Israeli army and security forces will continue the war to return all abductees, eliminate Hamas and ensure that there is no further threat to the State of Israel from Gaza,” for its part, confirmed the government after its vote on the agreement.
On Wednesday, the bombings had not stopped in the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting strikes to AFP.
More than 30 people were found dead and dozens injured after dawn strikes Wednesday on houses in a residential area east of the northern Gaza City, according to Gaza civil defense.
The Hamas government said Wednesday that 200 people had been killed in the past 24 hours by the Israeli army.
For weeks, international organizations and many foreign capitals have been increasing calls for a ceasefire or a truce in the face of the catastrophic humanitarian situation.
According to the UN, more than 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip, subjected since October 9 by Israel to a “total siege”, where the Humanitarian aid and fuel arrive there in dribs and drabs via Egypt.
“War on hospitals”
In Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, AFP images on Wednesday showed a strike near the Kama Adwan hospital.
Hamas claims that Israel is waging “a war against hospitals” in Gaza, almost all of which in the north of the territory are no longer functioning.
Israel, which has occupied al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, since November 15, accuses Hamas of using hospitals as military bases, buried in particular in tunnels, and of using the civilians there as “human shields”, which the Palestinian movement denies.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said 14 ambulances had arrived in al-Chifa to evacuate the injured and patients.