• The agreement is structured in three phases and comes after 15 months of war on Gaza and a genocide that has claimed the lives of more than 46,000 Palestinians.
• The first phase provides for the release of 33 Israeli hostages, the entry of humanitarian aid and the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops.
• The subsequent phases will be negotiated over the coming weeks and should lead to Israel's total withdrawal from Gaza.

From 19 January, the ceasefire is due to come into force in the Gaza Strip. After months of diplomatic work, on 15 January Israel and Hamas reached an agreement in Qatar, brokered by the Gulf state, the United States and Egypt. Official confirmation requires approval from Israel's war cabinet and government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already raising doubts and accusing Hamas of having introduced additional requirements.

The agreement provides for a first phase lasting 42 days, during which Hamas will release 33 hostages, while Israel will free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in its jails, withdraw troops from the most densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip, allow civilians to return to the North and permit an adequate number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Palestinian territory. The total withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Strip will then take place in a second phase, during which Hamas will release the remaining hostages, including military personnel.

The ceasefire comes after 15 months of Israeli bombardment and a genocide that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians.

A lengthy diplomatic effort

Outgoing United States President Joe Biden said that the ceasefire plan accepted by Israel and Hamas had been under discussion between the parties since last May. A very lengthy diplomatic effort, mediated especially in its final stages by Qatar, where the negotiations took place, but also by Egypt and the United States themselves. It was also unblocked by the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House, which made it more acceptable for Israel to make concessions on the Palestinian dossier.

On Wednesday evening, Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani announced the successful outcome of the negotiations, a confirmation that also came from the United States and Hamas, while for Israel the final step of approval by the security cabinet and government remains. In theory there should be no problems, as the majority is solid, even though the two most extremist ministers in the government, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, have contested the agreement and may resign once it is officially approved. But on the morning of 16 January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that there had been a "last-minute crisis" over the agreement, accusing Hamas of backtracking on certain points and deferring approval of the text pending assurances from Qatar and the United States.

What the Israel-Hamas agreement entails

The agreement is structured in several phases. A first phase, beginning on 19 January, provides for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for 42 days. During this period Hamas will release 33 of the Israeli hostages in its custody, in particular women, minors and elderly people. Israel will instead free approximately one thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails, including some who have been sentenced to death.

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🚨BREAKING: Journalist and Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif removes his helmet and press vest following the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza, after a year and a half of continuous work reporting on the genocide and Israeli crimes in Gaza and its northern regions.

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During these six weeks, Israel — which in recent months has obstructed in every way the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip — will allow 600 humanitarian trucks per day to enter Palestinian territory. In the first week of the ceasefire the Israeli army will move eastward, and from the seventh day Palestinian civilians displaced to the south of the Strip will be able to move towards the northern part of the territory, which has however been reduced largely to rubble. The plan provides that during this first phase 60,000 temporary homes and 200,000 tents will be set up in the Gaza Strip to shelter displaced people who no longer have a home.

On the sixteenth day, new negotiations between Israel and Hamas will begin to define in detail what will happen during the second phase of the agreement, which will start in early March. During the second phase the two parties are expected to announce the permanent end of hostilities, and Israeli troops will withdraw definitively from the Gaza Strip, while Hamas will release the last hostages still alive in exchange for the release of further Palestinian prisoners. The third phase will also be negotiated in the coming weeks and is expected to include, among other things, Hamas handing over to Israel the bodies of deceased hostages, plans for the reconstruction of Palestinian territory and for who will administer it.

Israeli bombardments continue

The agreement between Israel and Hamas comes after 15 months of Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and a modus operandi that both the UN and the leading non-governmental organisations have described as genocidal. Israeli attacks have destroyed or damaged approximately 70 per cent of buildings in Palestinian territory and killed more than 46,000 people, according to figures provided by the Strip's Health Ministry. According to the scientific journal The Lancet, the death toll could be as high as 70,000. 2.2 million people, representing the entirety of Gaza's population, are living in conditions of severe food insecurity, and 95 per cent of the population is displaced.

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Palestinians celebrating ahead of the announcement of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

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In Palestinian territory, thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the ceasefire announcement, but this sense of euphoria, explains Al Jazeera, is accompanied by fears about what will happen over the next three days. It is likely that Israel will step up its attacks on the territory in an attempt to achieve new military objectives in the little time remaining, and also to placate that section of the political establishment opposing the agreement. Following the announcement of the deal, heavy bombardments were carried out that killed at least more than 70 people, including several children.