The war in Gaza is ending. Hamas and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire. The ceasefire will be implemented in three phases. Hamas will release 33 Israeli prisoners during the first 42 days of the ceasefire. In return, Israel will release 1,000 Palestinians from Israeli prisons. There are reports that there are more than 8,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
It was also agreed that the hostages released by Israel would not include the Hamas members who carried out the October 7 terrorist attack. Israel would not completely withdraw from Gaza after the war. Israel would also retain Philadelphia on Gaza’s Egyptian border. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority would not be allowed to rule Gaza after the war.
The first three hostages will be released on the first day, and four more on the seventh day. After that, three hostages are to be released every seven days, with the final 14 being released in the final week of the first phase. The remaining 65 hostages will be released only if the parties can agree on a second phase of the agreement, negotiations for which are to begin within two weeks of the end of the war.
