Israel and Hamas agreed on the first truce, 50 hostages to go free in the swap.

On Wednesday, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement to put an end to the fighting in Gaza for at least four days, to allow humanitarian supplies to enter the territory, and to free at least 50 hostages taken by militants in return for at least 150 Palestinians now being held in Israeli jails.

The first ceasefire in a bloody conflict that has lasted for nearly seven weeks and was brokered by Qatar has been celebrated all around the globe as a positive step forward that has the potential to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s inhabitants and bring more Israeli prisoners back home. Israel has indicated that the truce might be maintained for a more extended period, provided that further captives are released.

On October 7, gunmen rampaged through various villages in southern Israel, capturing around 240 captives for Hamas and other affiliated groups. Before this, Hamas had only issued a total of four.

It is anticipated that the formal beginning time for the truce will be declared within 24 hours and that the first captives will be released on Thursday.

In a statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that at least ten women and children will be released each day over the next four days, bringing the total number of people freed to fifty. After that point, the ceasefire may be prolonged so long as an additional ten hostages are freed every day of the extension.

The release of Palestinian inmates was not mentioned anywhere in the document; nevertheless, the Israeli justice ministry did publish a list of 300 names of Palestinian prisoners who had the potential to be released.

“The Israeli government is dedicated to bringing all of the captives back to their homes. According to a statement released by the administration tonight, “it approved the proposed deal tonight as a first stage to achieving this goal.”

Hamas has stated that the first fifty hostages will be freed in exchange for the release of one hundred fifty Palestinian women and children now imprisoned in Israeli jails. According to the statement, Israel will stop all air flights over southern Gaza and maintain a daily six-hour daylight no-fly window in the north. At the same time, hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian goods, medical supplies, and gasoline will enter Gaza. Additionally, Israel will stop all air sorties over the northern part of Gaza.

Since the invasion by Hamas, which, according to Israeli counts, killed 1,200 people, the majority of whom were civilians, Israel has placed Gaza under blockade and has been relentlessly bombarding the area. Since then, more than 14,000 people have been murdered in Gaza; over forty percent of them were youngsters, according to medical professionals in the region that Hamas administers. The United Nations considers these numbers to be trustworthy.

According to Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, who was the key negotiator for Qatar in the ceasefire discussions, the truce meant that there would be “no attack whatsoever. No military maneuvers, no territorial expansion, and absolutely nothing.”

Qatar has high expectations that this accord will serve as a stepping stone to more extensive negotiations and a lasting cessation of hostilities. And that is our goal in mind,” he stated.

Fighting continued without letup while the start of the ceasefire was still in the future. Live video from the other side of the barrier during the early morning hours showed smoke from explosions rising above northern Gaza.

The Israeli military announced that it had carried out air strikes and published footage showing soldiers firing in confined spaces such as alleys. The government’s “forces continue to operate within the Strip’s territory to destroy terrorist infrastructure, eliminate terrorists, and locate weaponry,” according to reports.

“WHAT TRUE CAN THERE BE?” they asked.
The ceasefire agreement is a first step toward peace amid the most intense turbulence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has lasted for 75 years. The suffering of civilians on both sides has stunned the world over the past seven weeks, beginning with the slaughter of Israeli families inside their homes and continuing with the damage that has been rained down on Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people. This conflict has shaken the world.

“How can there possibly be a truce after everything that’s happened to us? A lady in Gaza named Mona, whose nieces and nephews were among those murdered by an Israeli air attack that destroyed the home of the Seyam family was overheard saying, “We are all dead people.” The target of the strike was the Seyam family’s home. “This will not bring back what we lost, heal our hearts, or make up for the tears we shed.”

It is thought that Gali Tarashansky, age 13, is being kept captive in Gaza. Her grandmother, Kamelia Hoter Ishay, stated that she would not trust stories of a deal until she received a phone call informing her that the kid had been released.

“And then I’ll know that it’s really over and I can breathe a sigh of relief and say that’s it, it’s over,” according to her.

Both Israel and Hamas have said that the truce would not stop them from pursuing their larger aims, saying something along the lines of, “We are at war, and we will continue the war until we achieve all of our goals.” In a taped statement, Netanyahu stated that the goals of the operation were to “destroy Hamas, return all of our hostages, and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel.”

Hamas stated in its prepared statement: “As we announce the striking of a truce agreement, we affirm that our fingers remain on the trigger, and our victorious fighters will remain on the look-out to defend our people and defeat the occupation.”

Hopefully, this may be a turning point toward more widespread peace.

“We hope the truce will happen and there will be good solutions, and we hope people will live peacefully and return to their homes and workplaces with stability,” said Abu Jihad Shameya, a displaced man from north Gaza who had taken sanctuary in the central southern city of Khan Younis. “We hope the truce will happen and there will be good solutions,” he said. “We hope people will live peacefully and return to their homes and workplaces with stability.”

“May God make an end to this suffering quickly.”

FOREIGNERS ARE INCLUDED AMONG THOSE WHO WILL BE SET FREE.

Joe Biden, the United States Vice President, was one of the many world leaders who praised the agreement. According to a senior source from the United States, three American captives are anticipated to be among those to be freed, including a young girl of three years old whose parents were murdered in the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7.

Israel has said that more than half of the captives had foreign citizenship or dual citizenship from roughly 40 different countries.

According to reports in Israeli media, the implementation of the arrangement would have to wait for one day to provide Israeli people with the opportunity to petition the Supreme Court to prevent the release of Palestinian detainees.

Around 85 women and 350 children are among the more than 7,800 Palestinians that Israel is detaining, according to Qadura Fares, the director of the Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs at the Palestinian Authority’s Ramallah-based Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs.

Late on Tuesday night, the armed branch of the Palestinian terrorist organization Islamic Jihad, which had collaborated with Hamas in the operation that took place on October 7, said that one of the Israeli hostages it had been holding since the operation had passed away.