After more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas, there is a ceasefire that could bring the fighting to an end. A ceasefire agreement took effect at 11:15 a.m. local time Sunday, Jan. 19.
It follows an agreement last week on a multi-phase deal that would include the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
The deal, which was supposed to go into effect at 8:30 a.m. local time, saw a roughly three-hour delay after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Hamas turn over a list of the names of the initial hostages who would be released Sunday, beginning the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
Phase one, the first 42 days of the ceasefire, would see Hamas release 33 hostages, the first three of which were released Sunday. In return, Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners later in the day.
According to the Israeli military, the three hostages are now back in Israel. They have been identified as Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher.
“The 3 released hostages have arrived at the initial reception point in southern Israel, where they will be reunited with their mothers,” the IDF said in a statement.
Following their release, President Joe Biden spoke to the American people during a press conference on his final full day in office. President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath Monday, Jan. 20.
“The deal that I first put forward last May for the Middle East has finally come to fruition. The ceasefire has gone into effect in Gaza, and today, we’re seeing hostages being released –– three Israeli women held against [their] will in the dark tunnels for 470 days,” Biden said.
Biden said he was “pleased” that his team and Trump’s worked together to make the deal a reality.
“Now it falls on the next administration to help implement this deal,” Biden said. “I was pleased to have our team speak as one voice in the final days. It was both necessary and effective and unprecedented, but success is going to require persistence and continuing support for our friends in the region and the belief in diplomacy backed by deterrence.”
As part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, Israeli soldiers would move further out from Central Gaza, while displaced Palestinians would move back in.
During phase two, the following 42 days, Hamas would release the remaining hostages in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners and Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza.
Phase three would be a longer-term ceasefire, involving exchanges of dead bodies between the two sides, the reopening of Gaza’s border crossings, and a plan to rebuild Gaza.
The plan briefly hit a snag after the two sides initially agreed on the terms of the agreement, as Netanyahu held up the required approval vote from his cabinet, alleging Hamas was trying to renege on unspecified key promises. He then scheduled a vote for Friday, Jan. 17, where his cabinet approved the agreement.
The war began when Hamas launched attacks into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people in Israel and taking hundreds more as hostages.
Since then, Israel has launched strikes and invaded Gaza, killing at least 46,000 people based on official Palestinian estimates. A peer-reviewed academic study published earlier this month in medical journal The Lancet suggested that the number could be as high as 64,000.
Israel’s strikes on Hamas targets in the densely populated Gaza Strip led to accusations the country was committing genocide against the Palestinian people, including a report by international human rights group Amnesty International and an ongoing case in the International Court of Justice brought by South Africa.
Israel has repeatedly denied any accusations of genocide, citing its right to self-defense. Both Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have denied Israel’s actions constituted genocide.
