Israel And Hamas Reach Hostage Release Deal In Exchange For 4-Day Pause In Fighting

Topline

Israel and Hamas have reached a deal in which around 50 hostages being held by Hamas will be released to Israel, according to multiple reports, while fighting will pause for four days—marking the first major agreement between the two sides since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Palestinians evacuate the area following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi mosque in Gaza City on … [+] October 9, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP)

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

News of the deal broke Tuesday night, after Israel’s cabinet accepted the highly anticipated agreement.

The four-day pause in fighting will be the first pause longer than four hours that Israel has agreed to since the fighting escalated in early October.

Israel will let 300 aid trucks a day cross from Egypt into Gaza as part of the deal, according to Axios.

According to Qatari officials, Israel has also agreed to release some 150 jailed Palestinians—all women and children.

Because the deal was approved Tuesday, the hostages may not be released until Thursday to allow a 24-hour judicial review period, the New York Times reported before the agreement was announced.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office hinted at the deal Tuesday, announcing Israel’s war cabinet, security cabinet and government would all have meetings Tuesday night “in light of the developments on the issue of freeing the hostages.”

At the start of one of Tuesday night’s meetings, Netanyahu said he asked President Joe Biden to help improve the hostage deal to “include more hostages for a lower cost,” according to an Axios reporter.

Qatar and the U.S. have both helped in negotiations between Hamas and Israel, working for weeks to help arrange a hostage release and potential break in fighting, according to CNN.

What To Watch For

Israel suggested a pause in fighting could continue beyond four days, saying in a statement, “The release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day in the pause,” according to the Guardian. Hamas will likely need to work with affiliated groups in the Palestinian enclave to secure the release of additional hostages. The Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)—which is also holding several hostages—said on its Telegram page that it will not release any Israeli soldiers until “all our prisoners are liberated from enemy prisons”. Reuters reported that at least three Americans are expected to be among the 50 hostages Hamas has agreed to release.

Crucial Quote

“The war continues, the war will continue until we achieve all of our goals: to eliminate Hamas, to return all our hostages, to ensure that the day after Hamas, Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said Tuesday before one of the meetings to approve the deal, CNN reported.

Big Number

More than 240. That’s how many hostages have been held by Hamas since Oct. 7. Over the last six weeks of fighting, Hamas has released just four hostages back to Israel—including a mother and daughter and two elderly Israeli women—and Israel freed one hostage during a ground operation. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, at least two hostages held by Hamas, 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss and 19-year-old soldier Noa Marciano, have been found dead. Weiss was discovered last week near Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, which has been a major battleground over the last week. Hamas claimed Marciano died in an Israeli airstrike on Nov. 9, according to the BBC.

Key Background

Getting hostages returned who were taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel has been a priority of Israel and the U.S. Of the approximately 240, it’s estimated that about 10 hostages are Americans, according to ABC News, including a 3-year-old toddler who is believed to be the youngest American held. Over the weekend, U.S. officials said negotiations between Israel, Hamas and the U.S. were “closer than (they had) been perhaps at any point,” and leaders from Hamas and Qatar both made similar claims Tuesday. Israel has also faced increasing calls from international leaders for a cease-fire as the death toll in Gaza has continued drastically rising. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders had previously signified they were open to a multi-day pause, according to the Washington Post, but continued to say they wouldn’t agree to a cease-fire unless all hostages were released. As of Tuesday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry estimated more than 13,000 people have died since the conflict began. In Israel, an estimated 1,200 have died—the majority of whom were killed in the initial Hamas attack last month.

Tangent

President Joe Biden welcomed the deal and thanked Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi “for their critical leadership and partnership in reaching this deal.” Biden also thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for supporting a pause in fighting “to ensure this deal can be fully carried out and to ensure the provision of additional humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families in Gaza.” Biden added: “Today’s deal should bring home additional American hostages, and I will not stop until they are all released.”

What We Don’t Know

Exact details about the 150 jailed Palestinians Israel plans to release are unclear. The country’s Justice Ministry released a list of 300 candidates for released early on Wednesday, apart from the fact that they only include women and children. The list has been made public to allow for any legal challenges against the release of any particular individuals. According to Haaretz, Israel will release more than 150 prisoners if Hamas agrees to free additional hostages. According to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ support group, Israel has 200 Palestinian children and 66 female prisoners in custody.