“I can’t believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we’ve lost everything,” said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old displaced from her home in Gaza City.
Hamas said the ceasefire was the “result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip”.
Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to cement an agreement.
Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed said the three countries would monitor the implementation of the ceasefire via a body based in Cairo.
During the initial 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released, he said, “including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.
Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas to allow for the exchanges, as well as “the return of the displaced people to their residences”, he said.
The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be “finalised” during the initial 42 days, he said.
Trump hails deal
Biden said the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.
Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The agreement came after months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history, and days ahead of the inauguration of Biden’s successor Trump, who hailed the deal even before it was officially announced by the White House.
Envoys from both Trump’s incoming administration and Biden’s outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November” in the US election, Trump said on social media.
The president-elect added that his White House would “continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven”.
But one far-right member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said ahead of a vote on the agreement that it was a “bad and dangerous deal for the security of the State of Israel”.
Aid needed
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pointed to the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza as he welcomed news of the deal.
Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera news outlet cited a security source as saying coordination was “underway” to reopen the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow the entry of aid.
