The Israeli government gave the green light, Wednesday morning, November 22, to an agreement aimed at obtaining the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip, first tangible sign of respite after weeks of war.
“The government approved the outline of the first stage of an agreement under which at least 50 abductees – women and children – will be released for four days during which there will be a lull in the fighting,” according to a press release from the Israeli government sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Around 240 people were kidnapped during the October 7 attack on Israel by the Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip. The agreement to release hostages is “the right decision” to take, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Tuesday evening before the start of his cabinet meeting, which concluded early Wednesday with this green light.
Hamas, whose leader Ismaïl Haniyeh had reported progress in the talks, welcomed a “humanitarian truce” agreement, specifying that the “provisions of this agreement were formulated in accordance with the vision of the resistance”.
Two Israeli and Palestinian sources indicated that the agreement involved the release of 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel. On both sides, those released will be women and children, Hamas said.
After statements from the Israeli government and Hamas, authorities in Qatar, the Gulf emirate at the center of the truce talks, confirmed an agreement for a “humanitarian pause” in the Gaza Strip. “The start of this pause will be announced in the next twenty-four hours and will last four days, with the possibility of extension,” the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared on the social network X, welcoming the “success” of its joint mediation with Egypt and the United States.
“Our hands will stay on the trigger.”
The United States expects that “more than 50” hostages will be released by Hamas in Gaza as a result of this announced agreement with Israel, a senior White House official said, specifying that three American nationals were part of the hostages to be released. US President Joe Biden said he was “extraordinarily pleased” with the deal.
A senior Hamas official told AFP he expected “that a first exchange of 10 hostages for 30 prisoners would be carried out on Thursday” and that this “truce [could] be extended”. After 50 hostages freed, “the release of ten additional hostages will lead to an additional day of pause” in the fighting, the Israeli government said.
“Hamas and other armed factions must release all hostages immediately,” said Omar Shakir, director of Human Rights Watch for Israel and the Palestinian Territories, adding that the blockage of essential aid also stood, as the taking of hostages, a “war crime”.
This truce agreement does not mean the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Tuesday evening, saying he wanted a “full force” resumption of operations after the truce in order to “undo » Hamas and to “create the necessary conditions to bring home more hostages.”
“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.” the government also confirmed after its vote.
“We confirm that our hands will remain on the trigger and that our triumphant battalions will remain on the lookout,” warned Hamas for its part.
The risk of a health “tragedy”
International organizations and many foreign capitals are increasing calls for a ceasefire or truce in the face of a catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where the war has destroyed entire neighborhoods, devastated the health system and led to massive population movements.
A health "tragedy" is looming in the Palestinian enclave, where water is "cruelly lacking" and the shortage of fuel risks causing "the collapse of sanitation services", the United Nations Fund for Human Rights warned on Tuesday. childhood (UNICEF). According to the UN, nearly 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip, which has been subject to a “total siege” since October 9 by Israel. Humanitarian aid, whose entry depends on the green light from Israel, arrives in trickles via Egypt, in insufficient quantities, according to the UN.
In the Gaza Strip, where humanitarians report a sharp increase in illnesses such as diarrhea and respiratory infections, nearly 900,000 displaced people have sought refuge in overcrowded shelters run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Hamas says Israel is waging “a war on hospitals” in Gaza, almost all of which in the north of the territory are no longer functioning. The Israeli army, which has occupied Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the Palestinian enclave, since November 15, accuses Hamas of using the hospitals as military bases, buried in particular in tunnels, and to use the civilians there as “human shields”, which the Palestinian movement denies.
The Israeli army reported several shots overnight from Lebanon towards northern Israel, at a time when the international community fears an extension of the conflict in the region. Following the Gaza truce deal, a senior White House official said Washington now hopes for a "complete pause" in hostilities between Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the Israel-Lebanon border.
