Israel, Hamas agree to four-day truce, 50 hostages to walk free

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, November 22

Israel traded a slowdown in its operations in exchange for the freedom of 50 women and children of its 236 nationals held hostage by Hamas and taken to Gaza Strip following its October 7 attack.

• Editorial: Welcome truce

Israel will also free 150 Palestinian prisoners as per a deal between Israel and Hamas, which was primarily brokered by Qatar with important roles played by the CIA and Mossad chiefs and Egypt, according to reports. The truce is slated to begin at 10 am local time on Thursday, an Israeli official told the media. The Israeli PM’s office said the truce would be for four days.

The Hezbollah, which has been taking on Israel from Lebanon with calibrated aggression, said it too would join the ceasefire “if Israel did not break the peace and fulfil the terms of the deal”.’ Israel has given its citizens 24 hours to object to the release of any of the 150 Palestinians.

A similar deal was offered last week but rejected by the Benjamin Netanyahu government. Its stance may have changed due to the growing public support for hostages’ families, who held a five-day march to urge the government to do more to free the kidnapped, suggested the Israeli publication ‘The Haaretz’.

The IDF began to extend the vacations of the soldiers participating in the fighting in Gaza against the backdrop of the ceasefires agreed upon in the hostage-release deal so that some of them were now going on vacations of between three and four days, it reported. However, violence continued in the wider region on Wednesday. In Gaza, 100 Palestinians were reported killed in strikes that took place overnight and in the morning. Five fighters of Kataib Hezbollah militia were killed in a US airstrike near Baghdad and the Israelis said they struck Hezbollah infrastructures and a military site.

The ceasefire announcement was welcomed by a wide array of nations and organisations, especially in the Arab world and West Asia. Calling it a step in the right direction, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, “Much more needs to be done.”

The Kremlin said this was the “first good news for a long time” while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for wider solutions to the long-running conflict. The US, many European countries and China also welcomed the deal.

In the last bout of fighting between Israel and Hamas in 2021, a ceasefire was declared between the two after 11 days.