The truce between Israel and Hamas: What are its most prominent contents and what is Qatar’s role in developing it?

I reached out Israel and Hamas At dawn on Wednesday, an agreement was reached Humanitarian truce For four days, during which hostages held by the movement since the October 7 attack are scheduled to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, played a pivotal role in this agreement. What are its most prominent contents? What is Doha’s role in it?

After long days of negotiations over the impact of the ongoing war in Gaza and the continuous Israeli bombing of the Strip, which resulted in the deaths of more than 14,000 people, according to a tally by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the Palestinians of Gaza, along with the families of the hostages held by Hamas, breathed a sigh of relief as the two sides of the conflict reached a truce on Wednesday. It was a humanitarian initiative mediated by Qatar, in which Egypt and America contributed, and it was widely welcomed internationally.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions have detained 240 people since the bloody attack on the Hebrew state on October 7, which led to the death of 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. Since then, Tel Aviv has responded with a devastating bombing of the Gaza Strip, killing 14,128 people, including 5,840 children, according to the latest toll announced by the Hamas government.

This temporary truce, the first of its kind in this deadly and destructive war, will last only four days. According to it, 50 civilian women and children detained in Gaza will be released, in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, in addition to allowing humanitarian aid to enter the Strip, which is under siege.

Agreement details

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed more details about the agreement, which were as follows:

– The exchange of 50 civilian women and children prisoners in the Gaza Strip in the first phase, in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons, provided that the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement.

– The entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs.

The release of the fifty hostages will be distributed over the four days of the truce.

– “Closing air traffic in the south for four days, and stopping air traffic in the north for six hours a day from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon,” according to a Hamas statement.

– It does not include the release of Israeli military hostages.

The process of exchanging hostages for prisoners will be carried out with the help of Red Crescent employees on the ground, as well as officials from Israel, Hamas, and Qatar, according to what the French news agency reported, citing Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari. Al-Ansari stressed that the truce “will need some time to prepare on the ground.”

Reuters quoted Israeli media as saying that the process of releasing the detainees is expected to begin on Thursday. She also added that reports indicate that the implementation of the agreement must wait for 24 hours to give Israeli citizens the opportunity to ask the Supreme Court to prevent the release of Palestinian prisoners.

In a statement to Reuters, Qaddoura Fares, head of the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority in the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, said that among the more than 7,800 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, about 85 are women and 350 are minors. He added that most of them were arrested without charges or because of incidents such as throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, and not for launching armed attacks.

The agency quoted an American official, whom it described as “senior,” saying, “It is expected that among the detainees who will be released in this deal are three Americans, including a three-year-old girl, whose parents were among those killed during the Hamas attack on the 7th.” From October.

According to the Israeli government, in addition to Israeli citizens, more than half of the detainees hold foreign and dual nationalities from about 40 countries including the United States, Thailand, Britain, France, Argentina, Germany, Chile, Spain and Portugal.

In a statement, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State in the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the chief Qatari negotiator in the truce agreement talks, said that the International Committee of the Red Cross will work inside Gaza to facilitate the release of detainees.

He added: “(It will be) an intense period as we will be in direct contact 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the two parties, to ensure that we achieve the perfect hostage release process.”

Extension of the truce?

Qatar hopes that this temporary truce will turn into a sustainable ceasefire, as the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Gulf Emirate, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, expressed this on the “X” platform by saying: “We hope that this truce will establish a comprehensive and sustainable agreement that stops… “The machine of war and bloodshed leads to serious talks about a comprehensive and just peace process in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy.”

For his part, Qatari chief negotiator Al-Khulaifi confirmed to Reuters that the truce means that “there will be no attack at all. No military movements, no expansion, nothing.” He added that Qatar hopes that the agreement will be “the nucleus of a larger agreement and a permanent ceasefire. This is our intention.”

Doha praised the efforts made by Cairo and Washington to support the mediation efforts that resulted in this agreement, stressing that Doha will continue its “diplomatic endeavors to reduce escalation, stop bloodshed, and protect civilians.”

In order to extend the truce for more than four days, Hamas will be called upon to release other hostages in the coming days. In this context, Al-Ansari says, “If the Palestinians pledge to release an additional number, the truce can be extended.” He added that releasing “all civilians under these circumstances will take time, and confirming the remaining number will take time.”

But Netanyahu seems determined to continue the war. He said in a recorded message at the beginning of a government meeting that Israel’s broader mission has not changed. “We are at war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our goals. Destroying Hamas, recovering all the hostages, and ensuring that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel.”

In the same language, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant warned on Tuesday evening that the truce agreement does not mean the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, indicating that the army will resume operations “with full force” after the truce in order to “eliminate” the Hamas movement and “prepare the necessary conditions for the return of… other hostages.”

Also in the same tone, Hamas expressed in a statement its readiness to continue the war: “While we announce the arrival of a truce agreement, we affirm that our hands will remain on the trigger, and our victorious brigades will remain on the lookout to defend our people and defeat the occupation and aggression.”

To date, Hamas has released only four detainees: the two Americans, Judith Raana (59 years old) and her daughter Natalie Raana (17 years old) on October 20 for “humanitarian reasons,” and the Israelis Nurit Cooper (79 years old) and Yoshved Lifshitz (85 years old) in October 23.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, which participated in the October 7 attack with Hamas, said late Tuesday that an Israeli woman detained in the October 7 attack had died. The Al-Quds Brigades said on its Telegram channel: “We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy’s procrastination led to the loss of her life.”

Qatar’s “successful” role in mediation

The hostage issue remained strongly present in the war between Israel and Hamas. “Since the first day that Israel declared war, it formed an official delegation by order of Netanyahu to manage the prisoner file and negotiations on its part, in a game in which it tried to circumvent Israeli public opinion under several names,” says Israeli affairs expert Ihab Jabareen, pointing out: The role that emerged in these negotiations belongs to Qatar, despite the presence of many players.”

Jabareen believes that Doha “of course had a very successful role, not only with regard to the release of prisoners, but even the truce and its consequences, which could eventually lead to a complete ceasefire process. The political scene inside Israel is tense and weak, which would lead to Any truce would turn the military fires inside the Gaza Strip into political and electoral fires, and this is Qatari acumen and sophistication.”

In the same context, he continues: “Of course, Qatar is the only country that was able to complete the deal, as it plays an important role in being the only channel between Israel and Hamas, and hence the arguments for it were made by the American and Israeli administrations alike.”

Pointing out that the “behind the scenes” of the deal and the atmosphere in which it took place “are still a mystery to everyone.” The biggest question remaining today is whether this truce will breathe new life into it after its four-day lifespan ends, or will the war return with its horrors to Gaza and its residents once it ends?