Israel and Hamas agreement on Gaza begins Sunday – 33 hostages will be released

Its first 33 hostages will be released during the first phase of implementation of the Gaza Agreement according to Qatar’s Prime Minister. Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al Thani granted a press conference in Doha on the Israel and Hamas deal and stressed that it starts Sunday and that 33 hostages will be released during the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, which will last 42 days. CORVERSE The deal will be put into effect Sunday, according to Al Thani. “Hamas will release 33 Israeli prisoners, including women (…) children, elderly, sick and wounded, in exchange for the release of many prisoners in Israeli prisons. The details of the second and third phases will be finalised during the implementation of the first phase,” he explained. Qatar, Egypt and the US will monitor the implementation of the agreement, through a Cairo-based mechanism, he added. This mechanism will involve a group consisting of representatives of all three countries, which have intervened to reach an agreement. CORVERSE From Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al Sisi hailed the deal, with his posting on the platform X and stressed that it is now important to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza quickly. Negotiations to open the Rafa Pass The state Egyptian media, citing a source of Egyptian security services, reported that a coordination of actions is under way to “open the Palestinian passage of Rafah in order to enable international (humanistic) aid to enter.” Egypt is “prepared to carry the greatest possible amount of aid to the Gaza Strip”, wrote the government newspaper Al-Ahram, citing Al-Qahera News, which is approaching intelligence services, shortly after the announcement of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas after 15 months of war. Israel and Hamas have today reached a truce agreement accompanied by the release of hostages detained in Gaza, according to sources adjacent to the negotiations. Pressure to end the fighting has increased in recent days, with mediators (Katar, Egypt and the US) intensifying their efforts to consolidate the agreement. Rafa’s border crossing point has been closed since May, when the Israeli army occupied this zone and closed the Palestinian side of the pass. Egypt has repeatedly stated that it will only recognise Palestinian authority over the passage Al-Qahera News broadcast today that the framework agreement includes three phases. The first will last 42 days and will include temporary cessation of hostilities from both sides and the departure of Israeli forces from residential areas and towards Gaza’s border, and temporary cessation of overflights from Israeli war and reconnaissance aircraft for 10 hours a day. Israel will gradually reduce its forces on the Philadelphia corridor at the border with Egypt during the 1st phase of the Gaza cease-fire agreement with forces completing their departure no later than the 50th day, he reports a copy of the agreement that came to Reuters’s knowledge. The corridor was an obstacle to previous attempts to reach a truce agreement, with Egypt, which intercedes with Qatar and the US, to require Israel to leave it after it was occupied in May.