The reactions between Palestinians and Israelis are divided over the long-awaited news of an upcoming exchange of enemies and a cease-fire.
As word of agreement spread across Gaza, there was joy and rejoicing that the destruction wrought by Israeli bombings could finally end and hundreds of thousands of displaced people could return to their former neighbors, even if their dwellings were reduced to rubble.
The United Nations estimates that more than two-thirds of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged. The relentless Israeli bombardment over the past 15 months has also killed more than 46,500 people, according to Palestinian officials.
In the West Bank, there were also celebrations among winning bids. Hundreds of Palestinians who have served prison sentences in Israeli prisons – some for violent crimes – are expected to return to their families, along with many others who have been held without ever being tried.
But on the streets of Jerusalem on Thursday morning, there was no such euphoria. A group of protesters placed Israeli flags over barrels as a symbol of the enemies they say could leave the agreement in Gaza.
Canadian Maureen Leshem talks to The National about waiting for the release of her cousin, Romi Gonen, who was kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, Israel's cabinet, which still has no official backing for the deal, delayed a morning vote on the deal, accusing Hamas of retaliating against it just hours after it be signed.
Under the deal reached on Wednesday, 33 hostages are expected to be released over the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians jailed by Israel. Israeli forces will withdraw from many areas in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be able to return to what remains of their homes, and there would be an increase in humanitarian aid.
With around 30 detainees and prisoners released for every enemy of Israel, up to 1,000 Palestinians could be released. It is believed that more than 60 Israelis are still alive and held captive in Gaza, but only the young or very sick and young women will be included in the first group to be returned, start on sunday.
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The aforementioned agreement has divided the country.
“Israel is very happy with the deal, and at the same time they are frustrated and frustrated by it,” Dahlia Scheindlin, a Canadian Israeli pollster and political analyst based in Tel Aviv, told the BBC .
While it is recognized that 33 hostages would be released in the first phase, “no one knows if he will actually reach the second phase.” “
Divisions among traitor families
The only pause in the war came in November 2023, when 105 prisoners were freed by Hamas. But that truce collapsed.
That halt came nearly two months after Hamas and other Gaza militants swept through southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to estimates the Israeli government. In the war that followed, Israel says that 405 of its soldiers died, as did some of the guards, either by being executed or accidentally during Israeli attacks.
Even before US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump made competing statements this week giving credit for the deal, there was widespread talk in Israel of betrayal. Israeli media have run stories alleging secret deals between Netanyahu and his far-right allies to restart the war after the first six-week pause and destroy the enemies as they happened.
After 15 months of bloodshed, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire that would see an end to the war in Gaza, the release of hostages and more aid to Palestinians. But world leaders are stressing the need for a long-term solution.
Groups representing host families in Gaza appear to be particularly divided. The largest, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which has occupied a Tel Aviv square for the past 15 months and held constant rallies to try to keep the plight of their loved ones in check, said public, that they “greeted with great joy and relief the agreement to bring our loved ones home.”
But the Tikva Forum of Hostages' Families opposed the deal.
“This deal leaves dozens of hostages behind in Gaza,” he said in a press release. “Don't be part of a government that betrays dozens of hostages, leaving them behind ,” he said, urging members of Netanyahu's cabinet not to support the deal.
Many Israelis seem to share the fear that the chances of reaching Phase 2 of the agreement are low – either because Hamas will break the agreement or the Netanyahu government will.
Under the terms of the three-phase agreement, negotiations on the release of hostages in Phase 2 would begin 16 days from Sunday's implementation.
Hamas continues, despite being weak
There will be major tests against the peace if it is to finally deliver all enemies back to Israel and return more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees to their families.
Even as the deal was announced, Israeli warplanes continued to bring in carnage, with attacks on Wednesday night and Thursday morning leaving dozens of people dead in Gaza City and northern Gaza, according to medics. Palestine.
Many times over the past 15 months, Netanyahu has stressed that he will settle for “total victory” anyway. That meant defeating Hamas, freedom for the guards and creating conditions where militant groups in Gaza could no longer launch attacks on Israel.
For many Israelis who wake up on Thursday morning, the agreement signed in Qatar appears to be not much shorter than that. While Hamas has been severely weakened and its top leadership killed, US officials said on Wednesday that the group also appears to have managed to recruit many new members to replace those it has lost.
In a statement, Hamas said that the “ceasefire agreement and the end of the war in Gaza is considered an achievement for our people” and a “turning point” on the “road to freedom”. Iran's rulers, who brought back Hamas, called it “Israel's retreat”.
Even assuming that both sides can move forward with the implementation of Phase 2 of the agreement, the Israeli government has refused to discuss what type of Palestinian government it intends to govern Gaza in the long term. time, the main aspect of Level 3.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that representatives of either Hamas or the reformed Palestinian Authority – which has something like municipal status in the West Bank – would take power there. the Gaza.
With no mention of a commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state or an end to Israel's nearly six-decade occupation, the ceasefire could end the fighting immediately – but the conflict will continue wide
