Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.Credit: AP
From Gaza to Istanbul, people gathered in the streets to celebrate the deal, which follows 15 months of war and devastation after Hamas-led fighters killed 1200 Israeli soldiers and civilians in the October 7, 2023 attacks and took another 250 people hostage. Israel’s subsequent bombing campaign and ground invasion has killed about 46,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The terms of the agreement are similar to those proposed by Biden in May, and the outgoing US president will claim it as a major feature of his legacy – but the timing, just days before he cedes the Oval Office to Donald Trump, has already set off debate about who should take credit.
Trump got ahead of an official announcement by posting on his Truth Social website: “We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released shortly.” He went on to claim the “epic” deal would not have been possible without his victory in the November election. “We have achieved so much without even being in the White House,” he wrote.
Biden praised senior members of his administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and CIA director Bill Burns, for their work on the deal over many months. When one reporter asked Biden whether he or Trump should get credit for the outcome, Biden – who was leaving the podium – turned around, smiled and said: “Is that a joke?”
With his inauguration approaching, Trump repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released. His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff also worked with Biden’s team to push the deal over the line, and the president noted its terms would be enforced under the new administration.
Despite Biden’s announcement that a deal had been reached “at long last”, a statement moments earlier from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office indicated details were still being finalised. Any agreement also needs to be approved by Netanyahu’s cabinet.
President Joe Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, announces details of the Gaza ceasefire deal.Credit: Bloomberg
Despite the apparent breakthrough, residents said Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza as the deal was being announced. Strikes on Gaza City and northern Gaza killed at least 32 people, medics said, while the Israeli military confirmed it had carried out strikes on more than 50 targets in the previous 24 hours.
There was recognition the brokered truce could collapse. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned: “This peace that may now have been achieved is very fragile. This is just phase one. We must move to phase two and three, and a complete ceasefire – and the day after.”
While Biden said details about numbers were still forthcoming, several US and global media agencies reported that 33 Israeli hostages held by Hamas were due to be released during the first 42 days of the agreement.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese heralded the development as a constructive step towards stability in the troubled region and a trigger to tone down domestic tensions over the conflict. He gave credit to Biden and the incoming Trump administration.
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“This is not the end. This is a really important breakthrough and step forward,” Albanese said. While he hoped the deal would allow the Palestinian people to rebuild and move towards self-determination, “the Palestinians need to have reform … Hamas can play no rule in a future Palestinian state”.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton welcomed the deal and said he hoped it would result in a decrease in vandalism and harassment targeted at Jewish Australians.
“Let’s wait to see what happens in relation to those commitments and whether they’re honoured before we start to talk about next steps,” he added when asked about the prospect of a two-state solution.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said the organisation was “elated and relieved” a deal had been struck while cautioning it was “at best only the beginning of the end of the war”.
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network President Nasser Mashni said the ceasefire agreement was “long overdue” and called for the federal government not to overlook the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
“A ceasefire is not justice – it is a fleeting reprieve that will never undo the profound pain caused by Israel’s genocide, nor will it, alone, prevent the next wave of bloodshed,” he said.
Responses from other world leaders were hopeful. French President Emmanuel Macron said the deal must be respected and lead to a political solution. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the ceasefire opened the door to a permanent end to the war, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was more work to do but “today there is hope” for a lasting peace.
Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, last week.Credit: AP
The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators. A senior US official told AP there would be further talks between those negotiators in Cairo on Thursday.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Biden administration had achieved the first of three prongs that could bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The second was an effective plan to rebuild, govern and secure Gaza, and the third a normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
On the latter two, the administration would hand over to its successor detailed plans that had solid support in the region, Miller said. News of the deal broke during a confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Florida senator Marco Rubio.
Rubio told the hearing the degradation of Hezbollah, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and now a potential ceasefire in Gaza “may open the door to extraordinary and historic opportunities” in the Middle East.
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In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the October 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country’s history.
The conflict spread across the Middle East, with Iran-backed proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians. The deal comes after Israel killed the top leaders of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in assassinations, which gave it the upper hand.
With Reuters, AP