The agreement involves a four-day temporary ceasefire while hostages are released, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. Hamas also confirms the agreement, reports Reuters.
Israel has also agreed to extend the ceasefire by one day for every ten hostages released, AP writes.
While the newspaper Haaretz writes that there is a five-day ceasefire.
The United States has been central to the efforts to establish the agreement together with Qatar.
And according to an American spokesperson, three American hostages, including a girl who will soon be four years old, are to be released, according to Reuters. The girl’s parents were killed on 7 October. The releases can start 24 hours after the agreement was announced, says the spokesperson.
The points in the agreement
The agreement must be six pages long and contain a number of points:
Hamas is to release 50 women and children held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Israel is to release between 150 and 300 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, also mainly women and children. The hostages will be released in batches over the course of four days. It requires a halt in the Israeli airstrikes and a halt in the fighting on the ground between Israeli soldiers and Hamas soldiers. A temporary truce is therefore concluded. 300 truckloads of emergency aid are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip every day during the five days of the ceasefire. This also includes fuel, which allows hospitals and other necessary functions to be powered by generators.
Altogether, at least 237 civilians and soldiers are being held captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip after Hamas soldiers attacked southern Israel on October 7.
No one knows how many are alive. Some have been confirmed dead. Four women plus a soldier have been released for humanitarian reasons.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden helped in the end to improve the agreement, so that it includes the release of several hostages.
In addition to the hostages that Hamas itself is holding, around 40 are captured by other groups. The Islamic Holy War announced on Tuesday evening on the Telegram messaging service that a female hostage they had held is now dead.
They claim that they have offered to release the woman on humanitarian grounds, but that Israel has so far refused to agree to a deal. This has not been confirmed by independent sources.
In any case, the hope is that the agreement will pave the way for new negotiations and new releases.
In Israel, various government bodies were called together on Tuesday evening: the Israeli War Cabinet met at 6 p.m., the Security Cabinet at 7 p.m. and the entire government at 8 p.m. local time this evening to approve an agreement. Just before 02:00 Norwegian time on Wednesday, the announcement came that the government has approved an agreement.
Armistice and peace – for both
In the Gaza Strip, the hope for a ceasefire has been intense.
– The war has really worn us out. Every day we hope to wake up to the news of a truce, says Hatem Alosli to a local photographer with whom NRK collaborates in the Gaza Strip.
Hatem Alosli hopes that the bombing and destruction will soon end.
Photo: Jebril Abu Kmeil / NRK
– We cannot handle more shocks, no more downturns, no more reports that we have lost someone, no more destruction, says Hatem Alosli.
He is not alone in wanting an end to the war.
– We want a ceasefire. Both for us and for the Jews, says Mohammed Breg.
– You see how the situation is, he says and points around.
Mohammed Breg calls for a ceasefire, both for Palestinians and Jews.
Photo: Jebril Abu Kmeil / NRK
– We want to take a shower like everyone else, now we have access to water every other week. We don’t have electricity. We want to sleep, but cannot sleep. We want to eat, but there is no food. There is no drink, says Breg.
– We just want to live.
The families of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip have set a large table in the Museum Square in Tel Aviv, waiting for the hostages to return home.
Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP
Netanyahu under press
In Israel, the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been under strong pressure to release the Israeli and foreign hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip.
Many of the hostages’ families believe the government has prioritized revenge against Hamas over the fate of the hostages.
Netanyahu has responded that force is the only language that Hamas understands, and to this day has maintained that there will be no ceasefire until all the hostages are released.
– We hope the hostages will come home as soon as possible, says the young woman Rotem Akav to NRK at what has been renamed the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.
The area is dominated by posters of the 237 who have been captured. Her cousin Omer Wenkert is one of them. He was at the music festival that Hamas fighters stormed on October 7.
The cousin is unlikely to be among the first to be released, given that women and children are to be released first.
– We are of course happy about it. But we hope there will be more prisoner exchanges and that the rest of the hostages will also be released. Several of them are ill and need medication, Omer is among them and we hope very much that he will be released soon, says Rothem.
She says family and friends stick together and try to stay strong.
2023-11-22 01:12:55
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