Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages and prisoners on Monday as part of a ceasefire agreement brokered last week by international mediators.
What do we know about the ceasefire agreement?
The deal was announced by US president Donald Trump and confirmed by Israel and Hamas early Thursday, with Israel’s government voting to approve it in the early hours of Friday. Shortly afterward, a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza; Israeli troops began pulling back to a new defensive line inside the enclave; and displaced Palestinians started heading back to Gaza City, in the territory’s north.
Along with the exchange of hostages and prisoners and an end to the fighting that has devastated the enclave over two years, the deal also calls for a big influx of aid into the Gaza Strip, which has been gripped by a severe humanitarian crisis.
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The agreement followed indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas that were mediated by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States, and is based on a plan presented by Trump in late September. Many details remain scarce, and the answers to some of the most sensitive questions – like whether Hamas will disarm – remain unclear.
Have Israeli troops pulled back from Gaza?
The deal’s first phase requires Israel to pull back its troops to an agreed-upon “yellow line” in Gaza. That happened Friday, according to Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. The Israeli military said Friday that its forces “began repositioning themselves along updated deployment lines.”
After a partial withdrawal, Israeli forces will remain along the Gaza-Egyptian border, in an area known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
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When will aid flow into Gaza?
The agreement calls for an influx of food and supplies to Gaza.
An Israeli military official said that starting Sunday, about 600 humanitarian aid trucks per day – operated by the United Nations, approved international organisations, the private sector and donor countries – would be allowed to enter Gaza with food, medical equipment and shelter supplies, as well as fuel for essential operations and cooking gas. This would be about twice as many trucks entering daily than in previous weeks, the official said.
The top UN humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, said the UN aimed to send hundreds of trucks into Gaza every day and would support bakeries, community kitchens, fishermen and herders. It will also give cash to 200,000 families to cover basic food needs, he said.
Supplies of dense, high-energy food items will be given to vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, children and adolescents, he said.
On Sunday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the “humanitarian scale-up in Gaza is well under way,” and spoke of “real progress.”
Israeli restrictions on food and other goods entering Gaza have led to extreme hunger, prompting international monitors to declare a famine in parts of the enclave this summer. Israel disputed the conclusions and the methodology behind the findings.
Will Hamas give up its weapons?
In agreeing to release the hostages, Hamas gave up much of the leverage it has had with Israel. But for Trump’s full peace plan to work, diplomats and negotiators will probably need to resolve a crucial question: Will Hamas agree to give up its weapons?
Netanyahu long insisted that he would not accept an agreement in which Hamas refused to disarm. The Palestinian militant group publicly rejected his demands that it do so.
Some mediators believe that Hamas may be willing to consider partially disarming and that it was critical to secure an agreement for the initial deal terms first.
“If we went for full-package negotiations, we wouldn’t have reached these results,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, one of the central mediators in efforts to end the war, said on Friday.
He said Hamas had expressed a willingness to talk about a different kind of relationship with Israel, however. “Hamas are actually open to have a discussion about how they won’t pose a threat for Israel,” the prime minister said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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