How the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal works
Israel and Hamas have signed a ceasefire agreement to end the war and return the hostages kidnapped by the terror group during the Oct 7 attacks.
The truce began on Jan 19 and is a multi-stage deal, with the first period lasting 42 days.
If the conditions for the deal’s initial phase are met, discussions for the second and third stages will begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire taking effect.
Here is how it is expected to be implemented.
Stage one
Hamas will release at least three hostages each week over a six-week period under the agreement’s first phase.
This amounts to a total of 33 hostages, who mainly consist of children, women, men aged over 50 and the wounded or sick.
Hamas will hand the hostages to the Red Cross, which will transport them from Gaza to Israel. The first three hostages released on Jan 19 – Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31 – are women who were not serving in the Israeli army.
The next four hostages, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, all 20, and Liri Albag, 19, were released on Saturday Jan 25.
Three women remain in Hamas captivity. Two of them are civilians while one was serving in the military when they were abducted during the Oct 7 attacks in 2023.
The Israeli hostages will be released in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, which is an issue that has proven to be a point of contention.
Hamas reportedly tried to push for some of its members and very high profile prisoners to be added to the release list before the ceasefire came into effect.
These were said to include Marwan Barghouti, a politician and militant leader serving a life sentence for the murder of five people during a Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s. He is regarded as being more popular with Palestinians than any other politician, despite having been shut away from the world for two decades.
Israel is understood to have refused to release Mr Barghouti, although a Hamas source said “a number of important [Palestinian] prisoners” will be freed.
On day seven of the ceasefire deal – when Hamas released the four female hostages – Israel was due to begin allowing Palestinians sheltering in Gaza’s south to return to the north but only on foot via the Al Rasheed coastal road.
On day 22, they will then be permitted to return to northern Gaza via the Salah al-Din Road, the main highway running through the enclave from north to south. It is unclear whether they must be on foot or if vehicles and carts will be allowed.
A crossing on the Salah al-Din Road will be equipped with an X-ray machine and operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team.
Israeli troops were to begin withdrawing from Gaza throughout stage one, however the issue of whether Israel will retain a military presence on the Philadelphi Corridor remains unclear. The Corridor is a narrow strip of land between Gaza and Egypt that Israel wants to control to prevent Hamas smuggling weapons.
According to a leaked version of the ceasefire deal seen by The Times of Israel, the country has agreed to “gradually reduce the forces in the Corridor area during stage one” and a full withdrawal will be completed by the end of the first stage.
However, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, vowed to increase the number of troops on the Corridor during a speech on Jan 18. A senior Israeli diplomatic official also told Hebrew media on Jan 16 that Israeli forces would remain there throughout the first phase.
Many Israelis have agreed with Mr Netanyahu on this issue, seeing the Corridor as a “lifeline” for Hamas.
It is understood that the Israel Defense Forces will maintain a buffer zone along Gaza’s eastern and northern borders.
Soldiers will gradually begin withdrawing from the Netzarim Corridor, which is an IDF-controlled fortified belt across central Gaza that they use to launch operations and control the movement of Palestinians.
Mr Netanyahu had earlier vowed that the country would not “under any circumstances” leave the Netzarim axis.
Finally, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza would increase to 600 a day, marking an increase from the estimated 76 per day in December.
Stage Two
Hamas would release the remaining living hostages – mainly male soldiers – in return for the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Stage Three
The bodies of the remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a three-to-five-year plan to rebuild Gaza under international supervision.
Longer-term concerns will also be addressed, such as who would be the next ruler of Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu has previously vowed to resume fighting unless Hamas’ capacity to govern the strip and to launch attacks on Israel is eliminated.