A look at the terms — and tensions — in the Israel-Hamas draft ceasefire deal

A man looks at smoke rising following an explosion inside the Gaza Strip, from an observation point in Sderot, southern Israel, on Jan. 13, 2025. (AP)
A man looks at smoke rising following an explosion inside the Gaza Strip, from an observation point in Sderot, southern Israel, on Jan. 13, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 15 January 2025
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A look at the terms — and tensions — in the Israel-Hamas draft ceasefire deal

A look at the terms — and tensions — in the Israel-Hamas draft ceasefire deal
  • In the first week, troops would withdraw from the main north-south coastal road — Rasheed Street — which would open one route for Palestinians returning. By the 22nd day of the ceasefire, Israeli troops are to leave the entire corridor
  • During the first phase, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel

CAIRO: If the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal goes according to the current draft, then fighting will stop in Gaza for 42 days, and dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed. In this first phase Israeli troops will pull back to the edges of Gaza, and many Palestinians will be able to return to what remains of their homes as stepped-up aid flows in.
The question is if the ceasefire will survive beyond that first phase.
That will depend on even more negotiations meant to begin within weeks. In those talks, Israel, Hamas, and the U.S, Egyptian and Qatari mediators will have to tackle the tough issue of how Gaza will be governed, with Israel demanding the elimination of Hamas.
Without a deal within those 42 days to begin the second phase, Israel could resume its campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas – even as dozens of hostages remain in the militants’ hands.




Humanitarian aid sits, waiting to be picked up on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom aid crossing in the Gaza Strip, on Dec. 19, 2024. (AP)

Hamas has agreed to a draft of the ceasefire deal, two officials confirmed, but Israeli officials say details are still being worked out, meaning some terms could change, or the whole deal could even fall through. Here is a look at the plan and potential pitfalls in the draft seen by the Associated Press.
Swapping hostages for imprisoned Palestinians
During the first phase, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. By the end of the phase, all living women, children and older people held by the militants should be freed.
Some 100 hostages remain captive inside Gaza, a mix of civilians and soldiers, and the military believes at least a third them are dead.
On the first official day of the ceasefire, Hamas is to free three hostages, then another four on the seventh day. After that, it will make weekly releases.
Which hostages and how many Palestinians will be released is complicated. The 33 will include women, children and those over 50 — almost all civilians, but the deal also commits Hamas to free all living female soldiers. Hamas will release living hostages first, but if the living don’t complete the 33 number, bodies will be handed over. Not all hostages are held by Hamas, so getting other militant groups to hand them over could be an issue.




Palestinians inspect the rubble of the Yassin Mosque after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike at Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, on Oct. 9, 2023. (AP)

In exchange, Israel will free 30 Palestinian women, children or elderly for each living civilian hostage freed. For each female soldier freed, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 serving life sentences. In exchange for bodies handed over by Hamas, Israel will free all women and children it has detained from Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.
Dozens of men, including soldiers, will remain captive in Gaza, pending the second phase.
Israeli pullbacks and the return of Palestinians
During the proposed deal’s first phase, Israeli troops are to pull back into a buffer zone about a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide inside Gaza along its borders with Israel.
That will allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including in Gaza City and northern Gaza. With most of Gaza’s population driven into massive, squalid tent camps, Palestinians are desperate to get back to their homes, even though many were destroyed or heavily damaged by Israel’s campaign.
But there are complications. During the past year of negotiations, Israel has insisted it must control the movement of Palestinians to the north to ensure Hamas does not take weapons back into those areas.
Throughout the war, the Israeli military has severed the north from the rest of Gaza by holding the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a belt across the strip where troops cleared out the Palestinian population and set up bases. That allowed them to search people fleeing from the north into central Gaza and bar anyone trying to return.
The draft seen by the AP specifies that Israel is to leave the corridor. In the first week, troops would withdraw from the main north-south coastal road — Rasheed Street — which would open one route for Palestinians returning. By the 22nd day of the ceasefire, Israeli troops are to leave the entire corridor.
Still, as talks continued Tuesday, an Israeli official insisted the military will keep control of Netzarim and that Palestinians returning north would have to pass inspections there, though he declined to provide details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed negotiations.
Working out those contradictions could bring frictions.
Throughout the first phase, Israel will retain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt, including the Rafah Crossing. Hamas dropped demands that Israel pull out of this area.
Humanitarian aid
In the first phase, aid entry to Gaza is to be ramped up to hundreds of trucks a day of food, medicine, supplies and fuel to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. That is far more than Israel has allowed in throughout the war.
For months, aid groups have struggled to distribute to Palestinians even the trickle of aid entering Gaza because of Israeli military restrictions and rampant robberies of aid trucks by gangs. An end to fighting should alleviate that.
The need is great. Malnutrition and diseases are rampant among Palestinians, crammed into tents and short on food and clean water. Hospitals have been damaged and short of supplies. The draft deal specifies that equipment will be allowed in to build shelters for tens of thousands whose homes were destroyed and to rebuild infrastructure like electricity, sewage, communications and road systems.
But here, too, implementation could bring problems.
Even before the war, Israel has restricted entry of some equipment, arguing it could be used for military purposes by Hamas. Another Israeli official said arrangements are still being worked out over aid distribution and cleanup, but the plan is to prevent Hamas from having any role.
Further complicating matters, Israel’s government is still committed to its plan to ban UNRWA from operating and to cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government. The UN agency is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The second phase
If all of that works out, the sides must still tackle the second phase. Negotiations over it are to begin on Day 16 of the ceasefire.
Phase two’s broad outlines are laid out in the draft: All remaining hostages are to be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.”
But that seemingly basic exchange opens up much bigger issues.
Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated and it cannot rearm — ensuring Hamas no longer runs Gaza. Hamas says it will not hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from everywhere in Gaza.
So the negotiations will have to get both sides to agree to an alternative for governing Gaza. Effectively, Hamas has to agree to its own removal from power — something it has said it is willing to do, but it may seek to keep a hand in any future government, which Israel has vehemently rejected.
The draft agreement says a deal on the second phase must be worked out by the end of the first.
Pressure will be on both sides to reach a deal, but what happens if they don’t? It could go in many directions.
Hamas had wanted written guarantees that a ceasefire would continue as long as needed to agree on phase two. It has settled for verbal guarantees from the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
Israel, however, has given no assurances. So Israel could threaten new military action to pressure Hamas in the negotiations or could outright resume its military campaign, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened.
Hamas and the mediators are betting the momentum from the first phase will make it difficult for him to do that. Relaunching the assault would risk losing the remaining hostages — infuriating many against Netanyahu — though stopping short of destroying Hamas will also anger key political partners.
The third phase is likely to be less contentious: The bodies of remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a 3- to 5-year reconstruction plan to be carried out in Gaza under international supervision.


At least 40 children killed in Sudan over three days: UNICEF

At least 40 children killed in Sudan over three days: UNICEF
Updated 7 sec ago
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At least 40 children killed in Sudan over three days: UNICEF

At least 40 children killed in Sudan over three days: UNICEF
  • Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a fierce power struggle since April 2023, with the fighting intensifying this month as the army seeks to reclaim the capital

UNITED NATIONS, United States: At least 40 children were killed by bombings over three days in several parts of Sudan, a UNICEF official said Wednesday, calling it a “stark” example of the threats facing young people in the war-torn country.
“Sadly, it is rare that more than a few short days go past without new reports of children being killed and injured,” Annmarie Swai, the UN children agency’s representative in Sudan, said in a statement.
She referred to strikes in the southern city of Kadugli on Monday which killed 21 children and maimed 29 others, as well as reports of at least 11 children killed in the bombing of a livestock market in El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur state.
Eight more children were reportedly killed in a strike on a market near the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Saturday, Swai said.
“At least 40 children reportedly killed across just three days, in three separate areas of the country. This is a stark illustration of the devastating — and growing — threats to children in Sudan,” she said.
Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a fierce power struggle since April 2023, with the fighting intensifying this month as the army seeks to reclaim the capital.
Both have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
Swai did not say which party was responsible for the deadly bombings on the 40 children.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than 12 million people.
The United Nations has recorded more than 900 “grave violations” against children between June and December 2024 — mainly children killed or injured in Darfur, Khartoum and Al-Jazira states.
“Children in Sudan are paying the ultimate price of the relentless fighting,” Swai said, calling for all parties to respect international humanitarian law and to cease fighting.


UAE mediates exchange of 300 Russian, Ukrainian prisoners of war

UAE mediates exchange of 300 Russian, Ukrainian prisoners of war
Updated 23 min 27 sec ago
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UAE mediates exchange of 300 Russian, Ukrainian prisoners of war

UAE mediates exchange of 300 Russian, Ukrainian prisoners of war
  • Latest release is 12th captive swap mediated by Abu Dhabi since 2024
  • Emirati efforts have led to the freeing of 2,883 Ukrainian and Russian prisoners

LONDON: UAE mediation efforts resulted in a new exchange of 300 prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia this week.

On Wednesday, 150 Ukrainians and 150 Russians were exchanged between Moscow and Kyiv amid the ongoing conflict that erupted in February 2022.

Emirati mediation efforts so far have led to the release of 2,883 Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war, the Emirates News Agency reported.

This is the 12th successful mediation led by Abu Dhabi since 2024.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs commended Russia and Ukraine for their collaboration with the mediation efforts and their role in the exchange, the WAM added.

The ministry said that Abu Dhabi is committed to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine and appreciates both countries’ faith in the UAE as a trusted mediator.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted photos of the prisoners on X, adding that the 150 soldiers were captured by Russian troops in Mariupol and the Zaporizhzhia region.

Some served in air and ground forces, or the national guard, and have been in captivity for over two years, he added.

“I am grateful to everyone working to bring our people back. I thank our partners, in particular the UAE, and all those who stand with us on this path. We are working to bring everyone back,” Zelensky wrote on his X official account.


Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’

Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’
Updated 05 February 2025
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Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’

Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’
  • Israel’s war against Hamas has forced 1.7m Gazans to flee homes, often multiple times

JERUSALEM: Palestinians will mark this year the 77th anniversary of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle.

But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now faced in the Gaza Strip — particularly as President Donald Trump has suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and that the US take “ownership” of the enclave.

Palestinians refer to their 1948 expulsion as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. Some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the prewar population — fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment.

After the war, Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. 

Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel’s rejection of what Palestinians say is their right of return to their 1948 homes has been a core grievance in the conflict and was one of the thorniest issues in peace talks that last collapsed 15 years ago. The refugee camps have always been the main bastions of Palestinian militancy.

Now, many Palestinians fear a repeat of their painful history on an even more cataclysmic scale.

All across Gaza, Palestinians in recent days have been loading up cars and donkey carts or setting out on foot to visit their destroyed homes after a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war took hold Jan. 19. The images from several rounds of mass evacuations throughout the war — and their march back north on foot — are strikingly similar to black-and-white photographs from 1948.

Mustafa Al-Gazzar, in his 80s, recalled in 2024 his family’s monthslong flight from their village in what is now central Israel to the southern city of Rafah, when he was 5. At one point they were bombed from the air, at another, they dug holes under a tree to sleep in for warmth.

Al-Gazzar, now a great-grandfather, was forced to flee again in the war, this time to a tent in Muwasi, a barren coastal area where some 450,000 Palestinians live in a squalid camp. 

He said then the conditions are worse than in 1948, when the UN agency for Palestinian refugees was able to regularly provide food and other essentials.

The war in Gaza has forced some 1.7 million Palestinians — around three quarters of the territory’s population — to flee their homes, often multiple times. That is well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war.

Israel has sealed its border. Egypt has only allowed a small number of Palestinians to leave, in part because it fears a mass influx of Palestinians could generate another long-term refugee crisis.

Israel has long called for the refugees of 1948 to be absorbed into host countries, saying that calls for their return are unrealistic and would endanger its existence as a Jewish-majority state. It points to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries during the turmoil following its establishment, though few of them want to return.

Even if Palestinians are not expelled from Gaza en masse, many fear that they will never be able to return to their homes or that the destruction wreaked on the territory will make it impossible to live there. One UN estimate said it would take until 2040 to rebuild destroyed homes.

Yara Asi, a Palestinian professor at the University of Central Florida, says it’s “extremely difficult” to imagine the kind of international effort that would be necessary to rebuild Gaza.


UN chief warns Trump against ethnic cleansing in Gaza

UN chief warns Trump against ethnic cleansing in Gaza
Updated 6 min 38 sec ago
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UN chief warns Trump against ethnic cleansing in Gaza

UN chief warns Trump against ethnic cleansing in Gaza
  • “In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse," said Antonio Guterres
  • Deporting people from occupied territory was ‘strictly prohibited’, adds UN rights chief

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told President Donald Trump on Wednesday to avoid ethnic cleansing in Gaza after the US leader proposed Palestinians resettle elsewhere and the United States take over the war-torn enclave.
“In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse. It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing,” Guterres told a previously planned meeting of a UN committee.
“We must reaffirm the two-state solution,” he said.

Earlier in Geneva, UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that deporting people from occupied territory was strictly prohibited.
“The right to self-determination is a fundamental principle of international law and must be protected by all states, as the International Court of Justice recently underlined afresh. Any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited,” Turk said in a statement.

 

While Guterres did not mention Trump or his Gaza proposal during his address to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters earlier that it would be a “fair assumption” to view Guterres’ remarks as a response.
Earlier on Wednesday Guterres also spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah about the situation in the region, said Dujarric.
The United Nations has long endorsed a vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war with neighboring Arab states.
“Any durable peace will require tangible, irreversible and permanent progress toward the two-state solution, an end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Gaza as an integral part,” Guterres said.
“A viable, sovereign Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel is the only sustainable solution for Middle East stability,” he said.
Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. The territory has been ruled by Hamas since 2007 but is still considered to be under Israeli occupation by the United Nations. Israel and Egypt control access.
A deadly attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, set off a war that has since laid most of the territory to waste. A deal on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas went into force on Jan. 19.


Iranian currency plunges to record low after fresh US move

Iranian currency plunges to record low after fresh US move
Updated 05 February 2025
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Iranian currency plunges to record low after fresh US move

Iranian currency plunges to record low after fresh US move
  • It remains unclear how funding for Iranian activists and opposition figures would be affected by the USAID decision

TEHRAN: Iran’s currency plunged on Wednesday to a record low of 850,000 rials to $1 after US President Donald Trump ordered a restart to the “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran.

Trump’s order calls for halting Iran’s oil exports and pursuing a “snapback” of UN sanctions on Iran. However, he also suggested he didn’t want to impose those sanctions and wanted to reach a deal with Iran.

The move comes as Trump’s moves to freeze spending on foreign aid and overhaul, or even end, the US Agency for International Development have been lauded in Iranian state media.

Meanwhile, ordinary Iranians worry what all this could mean for them.

“It encourages hard-liners inside Iran to continue repressions because they feel the US would have less capability in supporting Iranian people who seek freedom,” said Maryam Faraji, a 27-year-old waitress in a coffee shop in northern Tehran.

Iranian media say Trump’s cuts could stop the opposition in Iran

The state-run IRNA news agency said that “cutting the budget of foreign-based opposition” could “affect the sphere of relations” between Tehran and Washington.

Newspapers, like the conservative Hamshhari daily, described Iran’s opposition as “counterrevolutionaries” who had been “celebrating” Trump’s election as heralding the “last days of life of the Islamic Republic.”

They then “suddenly faced the surprise of cut funding from their employer,” the newspaper crowed.

Even the reformist newspaper Hammihan compared it to a “cold shower” for opponents of Iran’s theocracy abroad, an idea also expressed by the Foreign Ministry.

“Those financial resources are not charity donations,” Esmail Bagahei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said during a briefing with reporters. “They are wages paid in exchange for services.”

It remains unclear how funding for Iranian activists and opposition figures would be affected by the USAID decision.

The lion’s share of money for civil society in Iran has come through the US State Department’s Near East Regional Democracy fund, known by the acronym NERD, which grew as an American response to the Green Movement protests in 2009.