The Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023 displaced around 2.3 million Palestinians, with a death toll of 46000. 1200 Israeli civilians lost their lives while 250 were taken as hostages by Hamas. Equally worst is the humanitarian crisis triggered by this conflict. Post ceasefire, Palestinians authorities are to rebuild the lives of millions, right from scratch. There is also a need for Israel to recalibrate its relations with Palestine. On January 15th 2025, Qatar’s Prime Minister announced that Israel and Hamas have declared a ceasefire with a hostage/prisoner exchange deal. Following Israel’s cabinet’s approval of the ceasefire deal, it came into being on January 19th, 2025. This deal did, however, face a delay of few hours from its scheduled time.

A three-phase ceasefire

The ceasefire plan directs that it comes into effect in three phases. They will be over an accumulative period of three months. Each time Israeli hostages are released safely, Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange. In the first phase which began on January 19th 2025, Hamas released 33 hostages over a 6-week period. Women and children were released first including hostages over 50 years of age. In this first phase, it is expected that 1700 Palestinian prisoners will be released. These will include militants and 1167 Gaza civilians who were not engaged in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.

In the first phase, Israel will join strips from populated areas of Gaza i.e. the Philadelphi corridor. This will enable the reopening of the Rafah crossing at the border with Egypt. The Israeli military will also pull back from the populated areas of Gaza to allow an influx of Gazans back home. Injured people will also be allowed to leave the strip for medical treatment. Aid agencies and humanitarian assistance groups will also be permitted to operate in this area. In this phase around 600 aid trucks are expected to enter Palestine per day.

Following the commencement of the ceasefire deal, at least three hostage-prisoner exchanges have happened so far between Israel and Hamas. On January 19th, 3 Israeli women hostages were released by Hamas. The next day Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. These included women and children as according to the ceasefire plan women and children are to be exchanged first. By end January, Hamas released four Israeli women soldiers held in Gaza. Resultantly, 200 Palestinian prisoners were released in this swap deal. Amongst these, 121 were serving life sentences while 79 served imprisonments spanning over longer durations. Tunisia, Algeria and Türkiye agreed to receive those Palestinian prisoners which are to be deported. These are about 70 in number. The oldest prisoner from these 200 is 69 years old while the youngest is 15 years of age.

International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed in January that they transferred 100 plus prisoners to Gaza and the West Bank. The precariousness of this ceasefire deal can be seen from the disagreements between Hamas and Israel over the release of hostages and prisoners. Israel said that under the terms of the agreement, 29 years old female hostage, Arbel Yehud was to be released before the soldiers.

Another incident which added to this bitterness was prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to let Gazans enter northern part of this strip. This issue, however, was short-lived. The mediators resolved it overnight. Palestinians started entering the heavily destroyed northern Gaza shortly afterwards. In the third round of exchange, Hamas released a further of 3 hostages. In response Israel released 110 prisoners on January 30th, 2025. Around 23 of them serving life sentences have shortly been sent to Egypt from where they’ll be further deported to either of Tunisia, Algeria or Türkiye.

The second phase is expected to begin on March 1st. Its commencement is conditional on the success of the 1st phase. In case of breach of this agreement from either of the warring sides, the mediators, US, Qatar and Egypt are expected to intervene. The highlight of this phase is the ‘term’ of the agreement which stipulates the release of all the remaining Israeli hostages during this phase. This will also come with Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza. The third phase of the ceasefire deal is to commence from April 12th. Hamas will return bodies of the deceased hostages. This phase will also consist of the three-to-five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza. The 15-month fighting duration has reduced the city to rubble.

Israel-Hamas ceasefire is bittersweet. While Israel has accused Hamas for not releasing hostages in the order they were decided to be released, Hamas has alleged that any delay in the implementation of the truce has come from the occupation (Israel’s) side. For now, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is held in place. The future of this ceasefire can not be predicted as Hamas put forward the condition that the release of all hostages is dependent upon Israel’s commitment towards a lasting ceasefire. Israel on the other hand carried out attacks in the Palestinian inhabited region Jenin, in West Bank. This operation was carried out two days post ceasefire and it killed at least 10 Palestinians.