Gaza Ceasefire Begins As Hamas Set To Release 3 Israeli Hostages
Israeli ministers resign in protest
The long-awaited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas has officially gone into effect, bringing a temporary halt to the 15-month-old conflict. This ceasefire is set to last six weeks, with the first phase involving the release of 33 Israeli hostages, including three on Sunday.
While the exact timing of the hostages’ release remains unclear, Israeli officials have indicated that the first three hostages, Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari, will be freed after 4 p.m. (9 a.m. ET). In exchange for their release, 95 Palestinian prisoners will be freed, comprising 70 women and 25 men.
The agreement also facilitates the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and marks the beginning of the potential end to the devastating conflict in Gaza, which has left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins. The hostages’ release is seen as a significant step toward de-escalating the ongoing violence.
In addition to the hostage release, humanitarian aid began flowing into Gaza on Sunday, just 15 minutes after the ceasefire took effect. Aid trucks lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing in preparation for the deal’s implementation. However, the scale of the humanitarian crisis remains dire, with the civilian population in Gaza facing severe shortages of basic necessities. UNRWA official Juliette Touma noted that aid agencies hope to increase the number of trucks entering Gaza daily to alleviate the situation, though concerns remain about how to safely distribute the aid.
The conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 Israeli hostages back to Gaza.
Israeli Ministers Resign in Protest
In response to the ceasefire agreement, three far-right Israeli ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government resigned in protest. The ministers, all from Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, include:
- Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security
- Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Minister of the Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience
- Amichai Eliyahu, Minister of Heritage
In addition to the ministers’ resignation, three other lawmakers from the Otzma Yehudit party also submitted their resignation letters from their positions in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Despite these resignations, the move is not expected to collapse Netanyahu’s government.
The Otzma Yehudit party has harshly criticized the ceasefire agreement, calling it a “surrender” and labeling it “reckless.” The party claims that the deal will result in the release of “hundreds of murderers” who have the blood of innocent people on their hands, and it argues that the agreement undermines the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) achievements in the war by involving the withdrawal of IDF forces from Gaza and halting the fighting.
While the ceasefire agreement may bring temporary relief, the deep divisions in Israeli politics, highlighted by the resignation of key ministers, suggest that the road ahead for peace and reconciliation will remain fraught with challenges.
