The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda-backed armed group M23 signed a ceasefire deal on Saturday to end fighting that has devastated the country’s mineral-rich but conflict-torn east.
The truce was agreed in a Declaration of Principles signed by the two sides after three months of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, which follows a separate Congolese-Rwandan peace deal signed in Washington last month.
“The Parties commit to uphold their commitment to a permanent ceasefire,” including refraining from “hate propaganda” and “any attempt to seize by force new positions”, said the agreement.
The M23, which seized vast swathes of territory in eastern DRC in a lightning offensive in January and February, had insisted on seeking its own ceasefire deal with Kinshasa, saying the Washington deal left out various “problems” that still needed to be addressed.
The African Union hailed the new deal as a “significant development”, saying: “This… marks a major milestone in the ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace, security, and stability in eastern DRC and the wider Great Lakes region”.
Under the deal, the warring parties agreed to open negotiations on a comprehensive peace agreement.
The deal, which the two sides said aligns with the Washington agreement, also includes a roadmap for restoring state authority in eastern DRC.
– Full accord to follow –
Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said the deal took account of the DRC’s “red lines”, including “the non-negotiable withdrawal of the M23 from occupied areas followed by the deployment of our institutions”, including the national armed forces.
He said a comprehensive peace agreement would follow “in the coming days”.
The deal said the two sides had agreed to implement its terms by July 29 at the latest, and to start direct negotiations toward a permanent agreement by August 8.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to meet in the coming months to solidify the Washington peace deal, whose terms have not yet been implemented.
Questions remain over an expected side deal on economic issues after US President Donald Trump boasted of securing mineral wealth in the vast central African nation.
Tshisekedi said in April that he had discussed a deal for access to the DRC’s mineral wealth with US special envoy Massad Boulos.
Previous ceasefire agreements for eastern DRC have collapsed in the past.
Neighbouring Rwanda denies providing military backing to the M23, but UN experts say that the Rwandan army played a “critical” role in the group’s offensive, including combat operations.
Rich in natural resources, especially lucrative minerals, eastern DRC has been wracked by conflict for more than three decades, creating a humanitarian crisis and forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Thousands were killed in the M23 offensive earlier this year, which saw the group capture the key provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.
The front line has stabilized since February, but fighting was still breaking out regularly between the M23 and multiple pro-government militias.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Hamas should release all hostages held by the militant group in Gaza by midday Saturday or he would propose canceling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and “let hell break out.”
Trump cautioned that Israel might want to override him on the issue and said he might speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But in a wide-ranging session with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump expressed frustration with the condition of the last group of hostages freed by Hamas and by the announcement by the militant group that it would halt further releases.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock, I think it’s an appropriate time. I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out. I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday,” Trump said.
He said he wanted the hostages released en masse, instead of a few at a time. “We want ’em all back.”
Trump also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don’t take Palestinian refugees being relocated from Gaza. He is to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday.
The comments came on a day of some confusion over Trump’s proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza once the fighting stops.
He said Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, contradicting his own officials who had suggested Gazans would only be relocated temporarily.
In an excerpt of an interview with Fox News channel’s Bret Baier broadcast on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying the U.S. gives the two countries “billions and billions of dollars a year.”
Asked if Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, Trump said: “No, they wouldn’t because they’re going to have much better housing.”
“I’m talking about building a permanent place for them,” he said, adding it would take years for Gaza to be habitable again.
In a shock announcement on Feb. 4 after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Trump proposed resettling Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians and the U.S. taking control of the seaside enclave, redeveloping it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
IGNITE THE REGION
Trump’s suggestion of Palestinian displacement has been repeatedly rejected by Gaza residents and Arab states, and labeled by rights advocates and the United Nations as a proposal of ethnic cleansing.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump’s statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was “irresponsible.”
“We affirm that such plans are capable of igniting the region,” he told Reuters on Monday.
Netanyahu, who praised the proposal, suggested Palestinians would be allowed to return. “They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza,” he said the day after Trump’s announcement.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will depart later this week for his first visit to the Middle East in the office, said on Thursday that Palestinians would have to “live somewhere else in the interim,” during reconstruction, although he declined to explicitly rule out their permanent displacement.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disparity between Rubio and Trump’s most recent remarks on the plan.
Trump’s comments come as a fragile ceasefire reached last month between Israel and Hamas is at risk of collapse after Hamas announced on Monday it would stop releasing Israeli hostagesover alleged Israeli violations of the agreement.
Israel’s Arab neighbors, including Egypt and Jordan, have said any plan to transfer Palestinians from their land would destabilize the region.
Rubio met Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Washington on Monday. Egypt’s foreign ministry said Abdelatty told Rubio that Arab countries support Palestinians in rejecting Trump’s plan. Cairo fears Palestinians could be forced across Egypt’s border with Gaza.
Trump said in the Fox News interview that between two and six communities could be built for the Palestinians “a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.”
“I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent,” he said.
A Hamas spokesman on Monday accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement with the group, including targeting Palestinians in Gaza with airstrikes, and said that next Saturday’s hostage release would be delayed.
A Hamas spokesperson said Monday that the group will delay the next hostage release after accusing Israel of violating ceasefire agreement.
Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week ceasefire during which Hamas is releasing dozens of the hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The sides have carried out five swaps since the ceasefire went into effect last month, freeing 21 hostages and over 730 prisoners. The next exchange was scheduled for Saturday, releasing three Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, accused Israel on Monday of systematically violating the ceasefire agreement over the past three weeks, and said Saturday’s release would be delayed.
“The resistance leadership has closely monitored the enemy’s violations and its failure to uphold the terms of the agreement,” Abu Ubaida said.
“This includes delays in allowing displaced Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, targeting them with airstrikes and gunfire across various areas of the Strip, and failing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid as agreed.”
Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday handed over three Israeli hostages whose gaunt appearance shocked Israelis, and Israel began freeing dozens of Palestinians in the latest stage of a ceasefire aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, who was abducted that day from the Nova music festival, were led onto a Hamas podium by gunmen.
The three men appeared thin, weak and pale, in worse condition than the 18 other hostages already freed under the truce agreed in January after 15 months of war.
Ohad Ben Ami, a hostage held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, is released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, February 8. Reuters
“He looked like a skeleton, it was awful to see,” Ohad Ben Ami’s mother-in-law, Michal Cohen, told Channel 13 News as she watched the Hamas-directed handover ceremony, which included the hostages answering questions posed by a masked man as militants armed with automatic rifles stood on each side.
In another show of force by Hamas, which has paraded fighters during previous releases, dozens of its militants deployed in central Gaza as it handed hostages over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The hostages were then driven in ICRC cars to Israeli forces and into Israel, where they had tearful reunions with family members, and flown to hospitals. “We missed you so much,” the mother of Or Levy, Geula, said as she hugged her son.
Families and supporters react as they celebrate the release of Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken from Kibbutz Be’eri and held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, as part of a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the sight of the frail hostages was shocking and would be addressed.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog described the release ceremony as cynical and vicious. “This is what a crime against humanity looks like,” he said.
The Hostage Families Forum said the images of the hostages evoked images of survivors of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. “We have to get ALL THE HOSTAGES out of hell,” it said.
In exchange for the hostages’ release, Israel was freeing 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, as well as 111 detained in Gaza during the war.
Cheering crowds greeted the buses as they arrived in Gaza, embracing the freed detainees, some of them weeping with joy and tearing prison-issued bracelets off their wrists.
Among those freed in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was Eyad Abu Shkaidem, sentenced to 18 life terms in Israel for masterminding suicide attacks in revenge for Israel’s 2004 assassinations of Hamas leaders.
“Today, I am reborn,” Shkaidem told reporters as the crowd cheered.
The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said six of the 42 released in the West Bank were in poor health and were taken to hospital. Some prisoners complained of ill-treatment. “The occupation humiliated us for over a year,” said Shkaidem.
PAINFUL RETURN
Some hostages face a painful return. Sharabi’s two teenage daughters and his British-born wife were slain in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in 10 residents was killed.
Israel’s Channel 12 said Sharabi had not been told about their deaths and asked where they were when he arrived.
Levy will be reunited with his three-year-old son. His wife was killed in the attack.
Dr Hagar Mizrachi from Israel’s Ichilov Hospital said the hostages exhibited severe weight loss and malnutrition.
Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel. Reuters.
Sixteen Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released so far and 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been freed.
The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, mediated by Washington, Cairo and Doha, has largely held since it took effect on January 19.
Netanyahu sent a delegation for talks in Doha on Saturday, Israel’s Channel 12 reported, citing a political source.
Concern the deal might collapse before all remaining 76 hostages are free has grown since President Donald Trump’s surprise call for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and for the enclave to be handed to the United States and developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Arab states and Palestinian groups have rejected Trump’s proposal, which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing. Hamas said on Saturday its armed display at the hostage handover showed it could not be excluded from post-war Gaza arrangements.
Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s intervention and his defence minister has ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza to do so.
Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during the first stage in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing on a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war.
Hamas-led gunmen killed some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages in the October 7, 2023 attack, according to Israeli tallies.
The offensive Israel launched in response in Gaza has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated much of the enclave.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas released four Israeli female soldiers on Saturday, who will be exchanged for 200 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli jails.
The four were all members of a mainly female unit of observers posted round Gaza to watch for signs of Hamas activity, who were among around 250 hostages seized during the attack on Oct. 7.
Footage showing the capture of the four, as well as another soldier, at the Nahal Oz military base was broadcast on Israeli television last year after their families gave permission in a bid to increase awareness and build pressure to get them back.
Looking dazed and still wearing their pyjamas, the images, taken from Hamas bodycam footage recovered by the Israeli military, showed them sitting on the floor with their hands tied, some of them bloodied.
NAAMA LEVY, 20
Video of Naama Levy being bundled into a jeep in Gaza circulated on social media within hours of her abduction. It showed Levy bruised and cut, the seat of her trousers stained with blood, with her hands tied behind her back, pushed into the vehicle by a gunman while bystanders chant “God is greatest!” in Arabic. She had just begun her military service when the attack took place and as she was pushed into the jeep, she pleaded: “I have friends in Palestine,” footage released of her capture showed.
DANIELLA GILBOA, 20
Daniela Gilboa was wounded during the attack on Oct. 7 and was shown limping in the video showing the soldiers’ capture.
She was seen last year in a video released by Hamas, which showed her appealing angrily to the government to work for her release and saying she felt abandoned.
LIRI ALBAG, 19
Liri Albag was taken hostage just a day and a half after beginning her military service, Israeli media reported.
Earlier this month, Hamas released a video showing her reading a message, appealing for her release.
KARINA ARIEV, 20
Just before being taken, Karina Ariev managed to speak briefly wth her parents and sent her family a farewell message, Israeli media reported. A subsequent photo of her in captivity released by Hamas showed her with a bandaged head with what appeared to be blood stains.
Three hostages held by Hamas were released Sunday after 471 days in captivity as part of a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. A gradual release of dozens of captives over the next several weeks has been agreed on.
The truce and release of hostages sparked hope and trepidation among Israelis. Many fear that the three-phase deal could collapse before all the hostages return, or that they will arrive in poor health. Others worry that the number of captives who have died is more than predicted.
Some 250 people were kidnapped during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered 15 months of war. Around 100 hostages still remain in Gaza, after the rest were released, rescued, or their bodies were recovered.
Hours before Sunday’s ceasefire, which many hope is the first step to end the war, Israel announced that it had retrieved the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier who was killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war and whose remains have been held by the militants since then.
Here’s a look at the three hostages to be released Sunday:
Romi Gonen, 24
Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her eldest daughter spent nearly five hours speaking to Gonen as militants marauded through the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that roads clogged with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would seek shelter in some bushes.
Then she said words that continue to echo in her mother’s head every day. “Mommy I was shot, the car was shot, everybody was shot. … I am wounded and bleeding. Mommy, I think I’m going to die,” she recounted Romi as saying, in a press conference a few weeks after the abduction.
This undated photo, provided by Hostage’s Family Forum, shows Israeli hostage Romi Gonen, who is being held in Gaza by Hamas militants. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
At a loss for what to do, Merav Gonen tried to convince her daughter that she wasn’t going to die, to start breathing and treat her wounded friends. According to Merav, Romi’s last word during the call was a shriek of “Mommy!” as approaching gunfire and the men’s shouts drowned out everything.
Then the phone shut off. Israeli authorities identified her phone’s location in Gaza.
Former hostage Romi Gonen meets with her mother
Over the past 15 months, Merav Gonen has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing nearly daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad on missions.
“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” she told The Associated Press on the six-month anniversary of Hamas’ attack. “Every day we wake up and take a big breath, deep breath, and continue walking, continue doing the things that will bring her back.”
Emily Damari, 28
Emily Damari is a British-Israeli citizen kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village hit hard by Hamas’ assault. She lived in a small apartment in a neighborhood for young adults, the closest part of the kibbutz to Gaza. Militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighborhood.
This undated photo, provided by Hostage’s Family Forum, shows Israeli hostage Emily Damari, who is being held in Gaza by Hamas militants. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
Damari’s mother, Mandy, said she loves music, traveling, soccer, good food, karaoke and hats. Kibbutz Kfar Aza said that Damari was often the “glue that held her close-knit friend group together” and she was always organizing gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.
Former hostage Emily Damari and her mother reunite at an IDF facility in southern Israel. According to Damari’s family, Emily lost two fingers after being shot by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 onslaught.
On Sunday, Mandy released a statement of thanks for supporters “who never stopped saying her name.”
“After 471 days Emily is finally home,” she said.
Doron Steinbrecher, 31
Doron Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse who loves animals, and a neighbor to Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Steinbrecher holds both Israeli and Romanian citizenship.
At 10:20 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2023, Steinbrecher called her mother. “Mom, I’m scared. I’m hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to enter my apartment,” her brother, Dor, recalled. She was able to send a voice message to her friends. “They’ve got me! They’ve got me! They’ve got me!” in the moments of her abduction.
This undated photo provided by Hostage’s Family Forum shows Israeli hostage Doron Steinbrecher, who is being held in Gaza by Hamas militants. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
That message was key in helping her family understand that Doron had been kidnapped.
Steinbrecher was featured in a video released by Hamas on Jan. 26, 2024, along with two female Israeli soldiers. Her brother said the video gave them hope that she was alive but sparked concern because she looked tired, weak, and gaunt.
Former hostage Doron Steinbrecher meets her mother after 471 days in Hamas captivity.
In total, militants killed 64 people and 22 soldiers, and kidnapped 19 people from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7. With the return of Steinbrecher and Damari, there are still three members of the kibbutz held in Gaza: American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, and twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27.
Remains of Oron Shaul, 20
Oron Shaul was a soldier killed on July 20, 2014, during fighting between Israel and Hamas. His body and that of another soldier, Hadar Goldin, had been held by militants since then despite a public campaign to return them by their families.
This undated photo, provided by Hostage’s Family Forum, shows Israeli soldier Oron Shaul, who was killed during the 2014 war and whose body has been held by Hamas until Israeli soldiers recovered his body on January 19, 2025. (Hostage’s Family Forum via AP)
The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of the captives, called the Shaul family an “inseparable part” of the group.
Militants still hold the bodies of Goldin as well as two Israelis who crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015 on their own.
Israel and Hamas have agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal following 15 months of war, mediators Qatar and the US say.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday so long as it was approved by the Israeli cabinet.
US President Joe Biden said it would “halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal’s final details were still being worked on, but he thanked Biden for “promoting” it. Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said it was the result of Palestinian “resilience”.
Many Palestinians and Israeli hostages’ families celebrated the news, but there was no let up in the war on the ground in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency reported Israeli air strikes killed more than 20 people following the Qatari announcement. They included 12 people who were living in a residential block in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, it said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and others – in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 46,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Most of the 2.3 million population has also been displaced, there is widespread destruction, and there are severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter due to a struggle to get aid to those in need.
Israel says 94 of the hostages are still being held by Hamas, of whom 34 are presumed dead. In addition, there are four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom are dead.
Getty.
Qatar’s prime minister called for “calm” on both sides before the start of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire deal, which he said would see 33 hostages – including women, children and elderly people – exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli forces will also withdraw to the east away from densely populated areas of Gaza, displaced Palestinians will be allowed to begin returning to their homes and hundreds of aid lorries will be allowed into the territory each day.
Negotiations for the second phase – which should see the remaining hostages released, a full Israeli troop withdrawal and a return to “sustainable calm” – will start on the 16th day.
The third and final stage will involve the reconstruction of Gaza – something which could take years – and the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies.
Sheikh Mohammed said there was “a clear mechanism to negotiate phase two and three”, with the agreements set to be published “in the next couple of days, once the details are finalised”.
He also said Qatar, the US and Egypt, which also helped broker the deal, would work together to ensure Israel and Hamas fulfilled their obligations.
“We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” he added.
President Biden said the plan, which he first outlined eight months ago, was “the result not only of the extreme pressure Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and the weakening of Iran – but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy”.
“Even as we welcome this news, we remember all the families whose loved ones were killed in Hamas’s 7 October attack, and the many innocent people killed in the war that followed,” a statement added. “It is long past time for the fighting to end and the work of building peace and security to begin.”
Celebrations erupted across Gaza as news of the agreement spread. Reuters.
At a later news conference, Biden also acknowledged the assistance of President-elect Donald Trump, who put pressure on both parties by demanding hostages be released before his inauguration on Monday.
“In these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team,” he said, noting that most of the implementation of the deal would happen after he left office.
Trump was first to confirm reports the agreement had been reached, beating the White House and Qatar to a formal announcement.
In a later post on social media, he attempted to take the credit for the “epic” agreement, saying it “could have only happened as a result of our historic victory in November”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office thanked Trump “for his help in promoting the release of the hostages, and for helping Israel end the suffering of dozens of hostages and their families”.
“The prime minister made it clear that he is committed to returning all the hostages by any means necessary,” it said, before adding that he had also thanked Biden.
Later, the office said an official statement from Netanyahu would “be issued only after the completion of the final details of the agreement, which are being worked on at present”.
Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, said the deal would bring with it “deeply painful” moments and “present significant challenges”, but that it was “the right move”.
The agreement is expected to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, possibly as soon as Thursday morning, despite opposition from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners.
Then the names of all the Palestinian prisoners due for release will be made public by the Israeli government, and the families of any victims will be given 48 hours to appeal. Some of the prisoners are serving life sentences after being convicted of murder and terrorism.
Hamas’s chief negotiator and acting Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, said the agreement represented “a milestone in the conflict with the enemy, on the path to achieving our people’s goals of liberation and return”.
The group, he added, would now seek to “rebuild Gaza again, alleviate the pain, heal the wounds”.
But he also warned “we will not forget, and we will not forgive” the suffering inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza.
Supporters of the Israeli hostages’ families also celebrated in Tel Aviv. Reuters.
As news of the agreement emerged, pictures showed people cheering and waving Palestinian flags in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah and southern city of Khan Younis.
Sanabel, a 17-year-old girl living to the north in Gaza City, told BBC OS: “All of us are delighted.”
“We have been waiting for this for a long time,” she said. “Finally, I will put my head on my pillow without worrying… It is time to heal.”
Nawara al-Najjar, whose husband was among more than 70 people killed when Israeli forces launched an operation to rescue two hostages, said: “After the ceasefire I want to give my children the best life.”
“I want them to get over the fear we lived. My children are really scared. The terror has settled in their hearts.”
Sharone Lifschitz is a British-Israeli woman whose 84-year-old father Oded is among the remaining hostages. Her mother, Yocheved, was also abducted in the 7 October attack but was released after several weeks in captivity.
She told the BBC in London as news of the deal came through that it felt “like a bit of sanity”, but she admitted: “I know that the chances for my dad are very slim.”
“He’s an elderly man, but miracles do happen. My mum did come back, and one way or another, we will know. We will know if he’s still with us, if we can look after him.”
She warned: “There are more graves to come and traumatised people to come back, but we will look after them and make them see light again… May this be the start of something better.”
Moshe Lavi, the brother in-law of Omri Miran, a 47-year-old father-of-two young children, told the BBC that it was “a very mixed day for most families of hostages”.
“We want to see our families come home from their mass captivity. But we also understand that this is a phase deal. Only the first phase was agreed upon,” he said.
“We’ll have to keep fighting, keep advocating as families with all leaders with our own government to understand they have to release all the hostages.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the “priority now must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by this conflict”.
(Reuters) – Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of a deal on Monday to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden said a ceasefire and hostage release deal he had championed was on “the brink” of coming to fruition and Hamas said it was keen on reaching an agreement.
“The deal … would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,” Biden said in a speech to highlight his foreign policy achievements.
The official briefed on the talks, who did not want to be otherwise identified, said the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha, which included the chiefs of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar’s prime minister.
Another round of talks is planned in Doha on Tuesday morning to finalise remaining details, with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk expected to attend, as they had on Monday, the official said.
An Israeli official said negotiations were in advanced stages for the release of up to 33 hostages as part of the deal. The Hamas delegation in Doha issued a statement after a meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani saying talks were progressing well.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters the negotiations were at a “pivotal” point, with gaps between two sides slowly getting removed. “I think there is a good chance we can close this … the parties are right on the cusp of being able to close this deal,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sides were “closer than we’ve ever been” to a deal, and the ball was in Hamas’ court.
“We are very hopeful that we get it over the finish line, finally after all this time,” he told MSNBC, adding that the proposed deal was based on a framework Biden put out in May.
Blinken said negotiators wanted to make sure Trump would continue to back the deal on the table so Witkoff’s participation has been “critical.”
Israel’s Kan radio, citing an Israeli official, reported on Monday that the Israeli delegation had briefed Israel’s leaders. Israel, Hamas and the foreign ministry of Qatar did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Officials on both sides, while stopping short of confirming that a final draft had been reached, reported progress.
“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” a Hamas official told Reuters.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters: “There is progress, it looks much better than previously. I want to thank our American friends for the huge efforts they are investing to secure a hostage deal.”
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have worked for more than a year on talks to end the war in Gaza.
In Cairo, an Egyptian security official told Reuters the draft sent to the two warring sides did not comprise the final agreement but “aims to resolve outstanding issues that had hindered previous negotiations”.
Sullivan said Biden would soon speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the negotiations.
HELL TO PAY
Israel’s Channel 12 said Israeli government institutions had been told to prepare for the intake of weak and sick hostages.
The warring sides have agreed for months broadly on the principle of halting the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian detainees held by Israel. But Hamas has always insisted a deal must lead to a permanent end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled.
Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration is now widely seen as a de facto deadline. Trump has said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages held by Hamas are freed before he takes office, while Biden has also pushed hard for a deal before he leaves.
The official who first disclosed the draft said talks went until the early hours of Monday, with Witkoff pushing the Israeli delegation in the Qatari capital Doha and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani pushing Hamas officials to finalise an agreement.
The head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency Hassan Mahmoud Rashad was also in Doha as part of the talks. Rashad left Doha on Monday but a source familiar with the talks said an intelligence delegation stayed behind to play an active role.
Trump envoy Witkoff has travelled to Qatar and Israel several times since late November. He was in Doha on Friday and travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday before returning to Doha.
Biden also spoke on Sunday by phone with Netanyahu, stressing “the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” the White House said.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and most of its population displaced.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and his Religious Zionism party, a hardline nationalist party which has opposed previous attempts at a deal, said all its members would oppose a deal that didn’t achieve Hamas’ “destruction” and the latest proposal endangered Israel’s national security.
Bloodshed continued in Gaza on Monday. Residents reported a series of explosions in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip that targeted homes and roads. Palestinian health officials said at least 40 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
The Israeli military said five soldiers had been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing to nine the number of its troops killed since Saturday.
Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants began a ceasefire Wednesday in a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting as a region on edge wondered whether it will hold.
Some celebratory gunshots could be heard in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, battered over the past two months, but no immediate violations of the ceasefire were reported.
Israel has said it will attack if Hezbollah breaks the agreement, and an Israeli military spokesman, in an Arabic-language X post in the first half-hour of the ceasefire, warned evacuated residents of southern Lebanon to not head home yet, saying the military remained deployed there.
The ceasefire calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance.
The ceasefire began at 4 a.m. Wednesday, a day after Israel carried out its most intense wave of airstrikes in Beirut since the start of the conflict that in recent weeks turned into all-out war. At least 42 people were killed in strikes across the country, according to local authorities.
The ceasefire does not address the devastating war in Gaza, where Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable.
There appeared to be lingering disagreement over whether Israel would have the right to strike Hezbollah if it believed the militants had violated the agreement, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted was part of the deal but which Lebanese and Hezbollah officials have rejected.
Israel’s security Cabinet approved the US-France-brokered ceasefire agreement after Netanyahu presented it, his office said. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Biden administration spent much of this year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza but the talks repeatedly sputtered to a halt. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to bring peace to the Middle East without saying how, and his team linked the deal to Trump’s looming return to office.
Any halt to the fighting in Lebanon is expected to reduce the likelihood of war between Israel and Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas and exchanged direct fire with Israel on two occasions earlier this year.
Netanyahu presented the ceasefire proposal to Cabinet ministers after a televised address in which he listed accomplishments against Israel’s enemies. He said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and allow Israel to focus on its main enemy, Iran.
“If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to rearm, we will attack,” he said. “For every violation, we will attack with might.”
Biden said Israel reserved the right to quickly resume operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah breaks the terms of the truce, but that the deal “was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
Netanyahu’s office said Israel appreciated the US efforts in securing the deal but “reserves the right to act against every threat to its security.”
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the ceasefire and described it as a crucial step toward stability and the return of displaced people.
Hezbollah has said it accepts the proposal, but a senior official with the group said Tuesday it had not seen the agreement in its final form.
“After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Al Jazeera news network.
“We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state,” he said, referring to Israel’s demand for freedom of action. “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.”
Even as ceasefire efforts gained momentum in recent days, Israel continued to strike what it called Hezbollah targets across Lebanon while the militants fired rockets, missiles and drones across the border.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday leveled a residential building in central Beirut — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Israel also struck a building in Beirut’s bustling commercial district of Hamra for the first time, hitting a site around 400 meters (yards) from Lebanon’s Central Bank. There were no reports of casualties.
The Israeli military said it struck targets linked to Hezbollah’s financial arm.
The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously were not targeted. Residents fled. Traffic was gridlocked, with mattresses tied to some cars. Dozens of people, some wearing pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed overhead.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a major presence, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where the UN peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, is headquartered.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said peacekeepers will not evacuate.
The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few kilometers (miles) from the Israeli border.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah is required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border.
Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have exchanged barrages ever since.
Israel escalated its bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country’s north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon.
(France 24)-Is this the end of unconditional US support for Israel? With Netanyahu’s government seemingly ignoring Washington’s warnings of the dire humanitarian consequences of a ground incursion for Rafah’s civilian population, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday threatened to stop deliveringcertain types of munitions to Israel if it pushes into the southern Gaza city, notably the 2,000-pound bombs Israel has been using in its offensive.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden acknowledged in a one-on-one interview with CNN.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities.”
The US president’s ultimatum came as Netanyahu’s government said it was preparing a “limited” offensive in Rafah despite UN warningsthat a ground assault could lead to a “bloodbath”. Around 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by Israel’s months-long assault on the besieged enclave, are believed to be crammed into the city.
Biden’s threat has already partly been carried out, US officials have said. Washington last week suspended the delivery of 1,800 of the 2,000-pound bombs, a US official told AP on condition of anonymity, likely MK-84s as well as 1,700 smaller 500-pound bombs.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austintold a Senate hearing on Wednesday that an area as densely populated as Rafah demanded less powerful and more precise weapons. The city, which borders Egypt, has an average of 20,000 inhabitants crammed into every square kilometre, according to the UN – the same urban density as the city of Paris.
“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”
Austin said the US was pausing shipment of “high-payload munitions” over Israeli plans for an incursion into Rafah without an adequate plan for protecting the 1 million civilians who have sought shelter there.
A history of violence
MK-84 bombs have been used by the US militarysince the 1970s, first in Vietnam and then, more sparingly, in Iraq and Afghanistan due to their devastating impact on urban areas. Human Rights Watch has said that these munitions were also used by the Saudi-led coalition in the 2016 bombing of a market in Yemen that killed more than a hundred civilians.
Although these bombs can be modified with the addition of a precision guidance system, this measure would likely do little to avoid civilian deaths in an enclave as densely packed as the Gaza Strip.
Containing 900 pounds of explosives, these 4.5-metre-long bombs leave immense craters in their wake and scatter thousands of potentially lethal fragments in all directions. Nothing within a 350-metre radius can survive.
Military experts say these deadly bombs may have already contributed significantly to the horrific death toll of the war in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, almost 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since war broke out following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed almost 1,200 people.
Israel has frequently used these US-supplied bombs in an effort to dislodge Hamas militants from a labyrinthine network of underground tunnels beneath Gaza. According to a New York Times investigation published in December 2023, Israel dropped MK-84 bombs on Gaza every day during the first six weeks of the conflict. On at least 200 occasions, Israeli armed forces have directly targeted areas that were specifically designated as safe for Gazan civilians.
Israel has been criticised for years by human rights NGOs for its widespread use of these gratuitously powerful bombs during previous conflicts in the Gaza Strip.
“These bombs are used to inflict extremely heavy damage, either indiscriminately or completely deliberately, on residential areas or civilian infrastructure, which is forbidden under international law,” Amnesty International France director Jean-Claude Samouiller said. “This has not been respected by Israel, either during this current war in Gaza or in the past.”
‘Be careful’
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan described the US move in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 as “a very disappointing decision, even frustrating”.
The US is Israel’s leading arms supplier by far. Last month, Congress approved the sale of $14.3 billion in additional arms as part of a larger package that also earmarked military aid for Ukraine and Taiwan. That comes on top of the $3.8 billion in military aid the US sends Israel every year, most of which Israel must use to purchase US military equipment and services.
But this generous support has been called into question since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. Amid outcry from the Muslim community and the progressive left as well as pro-Palestinian protests at major universities, some Democrats are worried about the consequences of the Middle East crisis on the November presidential election.
This decision is the most spectacular sign to date of the mounting disagreements that are poisoning the Biden administration’s relationship with the Netanyahu government, which has brushed off US requests to take greater care to avoid the loss of Palestinian civilian lives.
“It’s an insufficient first step, but it sends a strong signal to Israel,” Samouiller said.
Biden’s announcement also comes amid the ongoing failure of ceasefire talks in Cairo. The latest ceasefire talks collapsed on Thursday with no agreement to halt the fighting or release hostages.
Netanyahu instead maintains he is determined to annihilate Hamas by launching a bloody assault on Rafah, which he maintains is the Palestinian militant group’s last refuge.
Israeli troops seized control of the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday – essential in the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza – and ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians. The IDF has also launched what it calls “targeted strikes” in the city’s east.
Washington’s decision is “some kind of diplomatic message to Mr Netanyahu that he needs to take into consideration American interests more than he has over the last few months”, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council Itamar Yaar told the Associated Press. Yaar added that while the decision would not have an immediate impact on Israel’s military capacities, he stressed that it was “a kind of a signal, a ‘Be careful’”.
Hamas has informed mediators that it rejects the latest U.S. proposal for a renewed hostages-for-ceasefire deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing sources as saying that the terrorist organization intends to put forward a roadmap for a permanent end to the war.
The U.S. offer would have seen Israel release 900 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 40 hostages, along with a partial IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the unrestricted return of Palestinians to the northern part of the coastal enclave.
The plan proposed that Hamas would release more hostages at a later stage following the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.
At the same time, Hamas is currently “unable to locate 40 hostages detained in the Gaza Strip” needed for the first stage of a hostage deal, an Israeli official with knowledge of the talks told CNN on Wednesday.
A senior Israeli official familiar with the talks in Cairo told the Journal that Israel was open to using the U.S. proposal as a basis for talks and that a majority in the Cabinet would vote to back a deal.
However, Israeli officials view the framework’s plan for the free movement of Palestinians in northern Gaza and the ratio of terrorists to hostages released as significant concessions to Hamas, the newspaper said.
Indirect talks have been taking place in Cairo, Doha and Paris brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. for a temporary truce that would see the release of the captives still in the Strip.
The Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea departed the Egyptian capital on Monday amid conflicting reports of progress in negotiations to free the remaining hostages.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday expressed frustration with Hamas, saying Israel was prepared to move forward.
Asked about President Joe Biden’s failure to secure a deal, Sullivan told reporters at a White House press briefing that “there could be a ceasefire in place today that would extend for several weeks to be built upon longer if Hamas would be prepared to release some of those people.”
He added, “I believe Israel is ready and Hamas should step up to the table and be prepared to do so as well.”
Officials in Jerusalem believe that the IDF withdrawal from Khan Yunis and the flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza have hurt the chances that Hamas will agree to a hostage release deal, Ynet reported Wednesday.
“We gave up our strong cards for nothing,” the outlet quoted the Israeli sources as saying. “Hamas is digging in with its demands for an end to the war and a troop withdrawal, and is determined to play tricks with the mediators,” the sources continued.
Speaking at a women’s event in Jordan late last month, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal declared that the organization’s leadership is “waging a negotiating battle no less fierce” than the military conflict with the IDF, according to a readout of his remarks posted to Telegram by Hamas.
“Inshallah [‘God willing’], we will defeat them in the field and in the negotiating battle,” said Mashaal, adding that the group is also fighting “intense battles” in the media and on the political battlefield.
The terrorist leader reiterated that “in the negotiations, we insist on stopping the aggression, withdrawing from Gaza, returning the displaced to their places, especially in northern Gaza, providing all necessary relief, shelter and reconstruction, and ending the siege.
“We will not release their prisoners [the hostages] until we achieve these goals,” Mashaal vowed.
The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza Strip for the month of Ramadan, leading to “a lasting sustainable” cease-fire.
As many as 14 countries voted in favor of the resolution, presented by 10 elected members of the Council, while the US abstained from voting.
The resolution called for an “immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.”
It also demanded the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs.”
The formal text said the parties should comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.
The resolution emphasized the “urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale,” in line with international humanitarian law as well as Security Council resolutions.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian territory since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.
More than 32,333 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,694 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war, now in its 171st day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
