(BBC News) This outline of the six-week ceasefire and hostage release has been widely leaked – and it involves several phases.
Phase one is an initial six-week ceasefire. During that period, Hamas will release 33 of the hostages that it seized in the October 7 attack. It is not clear how many of those 33 are still alive.
In return for each hostage released, Israel will release dozens of Palestinian prisoners.
Israel will pull its soldiers out of the more densely populated parts of the Gaza Strip into a buffer zone on the eastern side.
More aid and fuel will immediately be allowed in – and there will be a managed return of Gaza’s two million displaced to their homes. Or the rubble that was once their homes.
There is still a group of Israeli hostages – men of military age – who are not part of the first release. Their fate has been left up to another round of talks that are due to start 16 days into the ceasefire.
It is then that key questions about Gaza’s future – such as who will govern it, and whether Israel fully withdraws, are supposed to be addressed.
As we wait to learn more about the ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas, we are now hearing from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The prime minister’s office says Hamas “backed down” because of Netanyahu’s “firm stance” against last-minute demands on the deployment of forces on the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt.
Netanyahu’s office, however, notes there are “still several unresolved clauses” of the agreement that need to be addressed – but he hopes details will be finalized in the coming hours.
