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Israeli-Hamas Ceasefire Commences
Just before 4 p.m. on Sunday, January 19, Hamas released three Israeli hostages held in Gazan captivity since Oct. 7, 2023. Romi Gonen (24), kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival, together with Emily Damari (28) and Doron Steinbrecher (31), both taken by Hamas during the raid on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, were escorted by the Red Cross to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza and underwent medical examinations before rejoining their families waiting in Israeli hospitals.
However, the Israeli premier stressed that Israel is … committed to the release of all captives by all means necessary.
Gonen, Damari, and Steinbrecher are the first of 33 hostages to be freed over the next 42 days in exchange for roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The exchange was stipulated in the ceasefire hostage-release deal agreed upon by Israeli and Hamas delegations in Doha on Friday and went into effect Sunday morning.
Events over the weekend and in the early Sunday morning hours, however, seemed to undermine the deal’s integrity. Hamas twice failed to meet deadlines, as required by the agreement, to hand over to Israel the names of hostages 24 hours before their release. By late Saturday night, with no information from Hamas, Israel went on high alert for expected Hamas rocket attacks and Houthi missiles. In a televised speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the fight would continue until the list of hostages was provided. “Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement … the sole responsibility lies with Hamas,” Netanyahu stated.
Over Saturday night and into Sunday morning, Israeli Air Force jets carried out attacks on over 50 Hamas and Islamic Jihad military sites in Gaza, killing 19 terrorists, including the intelligence-informed strike on Muhammad Hasham Zahedi, a Nukhba terrorist who took part in the Nova Music Festival massacre.
According to a Hamas source for the Israeli Ynet news outlet, the delay in providing hostage names was due to the IDF weekend attacks. The Hamas leadership communicates “physically via emissaries,” the source explained, “and it takes time to agree on the names and locations of the hostages when IDF planes are still above.”
It was not until late Sunday morning when Netanyahu’s office confirmed they had received from Hamas the names of Gonen, Damari, and Steinbrecher to be released later that afternoon, pushing the ceasefire commencement back until 11:15 a.m.
In exchange for the three Israeli women, Israel will release 90 incarcerated Palestinian terrorists to East Jerusalem and the West Bank (Judea-Samaria), including Ashraf Nofal, arrested in the early 2000s for carrying out over 10 shooting attacks on Jewish vehicles during the Second Intifada.
The Ceasefire-Hostage Deal Stipulations
The framework for the “first phase” of the ceasefire was submitted by Israel to the Biden White House last year on May 27 and underwent several amendments over the summer before being placed on the negotiating table in Doha. The agreement requires a 42-day period for the cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of IDF forces from populated areas in Gaza, and the temporary cessation of daily aerial movement for 10 to 12-hour periods. For Gazan civilians, the stipulations call for increased humanitarian aid, the rehabilitation of commerce and infrastructure, and provisions for more than 60,000 caravan-homes and 200,000 tents to accommodate Gazans made homeless or displaced due to the war.
The most important stipulation for Israel calls for the incremental release of 33 Israeli captives in the first phase and provisions in later phases for the release of all remaining hostages, or their remains, taken on or before Oct. 7, 2023. There are currently three known hostages who have been held in Gaza for over a decade. (The significance of retrieving the deceased’s remains is not only patriotic, not to leave fallen brothers and sisters behind, but to fulfill Jewish law for a body to be buried as close as possible to intact).
The 33 Israeli hostages set to be released in the first phase will include ill or wounded captives, women, children under 19, and elderly above 50 — either alive or their remains. The ratio of exchange depends on age, gender, or health condition, and is roughly one Israeli civilian for 30 Palestinian prisoners, or one Israeli soldier for 50 prisoners. The 33 Israeli hostages in the first phase will be exchanged for roughly 2,000 Palestinians arrested for acts of terrorism. The released Palestinians are also not required to sign paperwork and cannot be rearrested based on past charges.
Reactions to the Ceasefire
The deal’s implementation has sparked mixed passions and emotions. For many, the deal is a show of weakness, a waste of Israeli blood, and a sign to all Israel’s enemies that Jerusalem is willing to stop short of full military victory and negotiate for hostages. Several government officials have resigned, threatening to bring down the coalition government, including Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir who, in his resignation, accused Netanyahu’s government of “surrendering to terrorism.”
For others, such as the thousands of anti-government protestors who have rallied outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv every Saturday over the past year, the news is celebrated with the confidence that Hamas will keep its commitment to the deal and more hostages will start trickling home in the coming days.
The streets of Gaza — and the streets in Hamas’s wider imperial domains on U.S. academic campuses — have also hosted celebrations and parades for their perceived victory in the war against Israeli aggression. Over the weekend, Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya, praised the Oct. 7 massacre in a televised speech as a “military accomplishment” and “source of pride to our people … to be passed from generation to generation.” He went on to call the ceasefire deal a “historic moment” that proves the Israeli “occupation will never defeat our people and their resistance.”
Over the weekend, Netanyahu expressed praise for the deal but maintained prudent reservation. In a recorded televised speech, he thanked the Biden administration for playing a heavy hand in brokering the deal and credited President-elect Donald Trump for joining “the mission to free the hostages the moment he was elected.” However, the Israeli premier stressed that Israel is prepared to continue the war if and when Hamas violates the agreement, and that Israel’s objective is committed to the release of all captives by all means necessary.
Netanyahu’s caution filled the air on Sunday afternoon as many watched the live streaming of Red Cross vehicles delivering Gonen, Damari, and Steinbrecher to the IDF positions at the Gaza border. Tears of joy flowed as the three women were welcomed home after over a year in hellish captivity, but skepticism pervaded over just how committed Hamas is to fulfilling the hostage agreement. As Seth Mandel at Commentary pointed out, as long as Hamas is in power, there is no such thing as a ceasefire. “After all, there was a ceasefire in place on October 6, 2023,” Mandel noted, “And the trove of reporting in the wake of the attacks made clear that Hamas had never any intention of upholding that ceasefire.”
READ MORE from Bennett Tucker:
Is the Next Middle East War in Yemen?
Will the Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Last?
The post Israeli-Hamas Ceasefire Commences appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
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