Hamas approves proposal for Gaza truce, captive exchange with Israel 

Mediator Qatar says that Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement to halt the 15-month war in Gaza and exchange Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani announced the agreement in Doha on Wednesday. He said the ceasefire would take effect on Sunday, January 19.

Hamas had earlier told Al Jazeera Arabic that its delegation delivered its approval of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement to mediators.

But the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that some aspects of the proposal were “unresolved”.

“Several clauses in the framework remain unresolved, and we hope that the details will be finalised tonight,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Netanyahu is expected to convene his cabinet on Thursday, according to Israeli media reports.

Three phases

The agreement will be implemented over three stages, Sheikh Mohammed said. In an initial six-week phase, Israeli forces would gradually withdraw from central Gaza and Palestinians would be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza.

Hamas would release 33 Israeli captives over those six weeks, including all female soldiers and civilians, children and the elderly, he said.

Talks on the second phase would begin by the 16th day of the first phase, and are expected to include the release of the remaining captives and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the Reuters news agency reported, citing an official briefed on the negotiations.

A third phase was expected to include the return of dead bodies and the start of reconstruction in Gaza, Reuters reported.

Mediators the United States and Egypt also confirmed that an agreement had been reached, with US President Joe Biden saying the proposal followed “the precise contours” of a plan that he set out in late in May.

“It is the result not only of the extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran – but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” Biden said.

Ahead of the official announcement, US President-elect Donald Trump wrote on social media that the “EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November”.

“I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wrote on X that he welcomed the Gaza ceasefire deal and stressed the importance of a fast delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

‘People are dying by the hour’

The announcement came as the Israeli military continued its deadly attacks across the Gaza Strip.

At least 59 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

The situation for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza remains dire with air and ground attacks continuing and most aid blocked by Israel.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Wednesday that Israeli attacks since the start of the war have killed at least 46,707 Palestinians, up by 62 from a day earlier. The number of people wounded has also risen to at least 110,265 people, it said.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said attacks had been relentless in recent days.

“Over the past 72 hours, more people have been targeted inside residential homes,” he said.

They included a family targeted in an overnight attack in Deir el-Balah that killed at least 12 people, including children, and an air strike on the Bureij refugee camp, where Israeli bombs killed at least five people.

The Israeli army also ordered new forced displacements, this time for Palestinians living in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, where a siege lasting more than 100 days has so far left more than 5,000 people killed or missing.

Israeli shelling on Wednesday cut off electricity to northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital as attacks on healthcare facilities are ongoing after the Israeli military torched Kamal Adwan Hospital last month and arrested its director.