They affirm that the first three hostages would be released this Sunday

A truce in three phases, the first two lasting 42 days each, with a ceasefire and the release of the first hostages on the first day. He agreement between Hamas and Israel signed this Wednesday in Doha should also provide for a gradual withdrawal of the IDF (the Israeli defense forces) from the Strip.

The Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, confirmed this Wednesday at a press conference in Doha that 33 Israeli hostages will be freed during the first phase of the truce in Gaza, which will last 42 days and will begin on Sunday, as he indicated.

“Hamas will release 33 Israeli captives, including civilian women, children, elderly people, sick civilians and wounded, in exchange for several Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Details on phases two and three will be finalized during the launch of the first phase,” he explained.

After the first three on the first day of the truce, four should be able to return home a week later, another three the following week and another three on the 21st.

In the last week of the first phase, the release of 14 kidnapped people is expected. Among the 33 hostages There would also be 5 Israeli soldiers in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisonersin a proportion of one for every 50.

For now, in any case, official confirmation from Israel and Hamas is missing, since this Wednesday the Israeli authorities indicated that they still needed to finish adjusting some points.

Hamas and its allies still hold 94 people kidnapped by Israel on October 7, 2023. Among them are 81 men and 13 women, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Two of them are under 5 years old (believed to be the Bibas brothers, whose fate is unknown), while 84 are Israeli, eight Thai, one Nepalese and one Tanzanian.

Israel has reportedly agreed to release at least a thousand Palestinian prisoners (it could be as high as 1,650 according to some sources and will depend on the number of hostages released) during the first phase, including about 190 who have served 15-year sentences (about a hundred of them sentences to life imprisonment).

Those accused of killing Israelis will not be released in the West Bank, but in the Gaza Strip or abroad (Qatar and Turkey are being discussed), based on agreements with foreign countries. However, Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the first Intifada sentenced to life in prison, will not be released.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government also reportedly rejected Hamas’s demand to return the body of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader assassinated last October, although it agreed to release a larger number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for live hostages than for dead ones. bodies. The first phase would also exclude the release of militants who participated in the attack on the Nova Festival and the kibbutz in which around 1,200 people died.

On the 16th of the agreement, talks would begin to define the following: In the second stage, also 42 days, all remaining male hostages should be released and Israeli forces should almost completely withdraw from the Strip. And, again, the question of the restitution of corpseswhose delivery is expected in the third phase, in which a reconstruction plan and a new government structure defined under the supervision of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations must also be developed.

Regarding the delicate issue of Israel’s presence in the Strip, the agreement would provide a gradual withdrawal from residential areas during the first phase, while Palestinian civilians from Gaza will be allowed to return to the north under the umbrella of “unspecified security arrangements” (possible passage adjacent to the Saladin highway, monitored by an X-ray machine).

The IDF is expected to remain along the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphia Corridor, which separates the Egyptian Sinai Strip, maintaining a buffer zone of approximately 800 meters along the eastern and northern borders during the first phase. Israeli forces should then gradually withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, which divides the Strip in two and leads to the Mediterranean.

The implementation of the agreement will be guaranteed by Qatar, Egypt and the United States and includes, according to some sources, an international monitoring mechanism. Progress has also been made in ensuring a regular flow of humanitarian aid to the Strip, exhausted by 15 months of war, with an increase in convoys (some 600 trucks a day, of which 300 will head north) from international organizations, including the United Nations.