Israel and Hamas reach long-awaited Gaza ceasefire

The brutal war between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza appeared to be coming to an end on Wednesday. Officials have readied a ceasefire agreement that would order a cessation of the violence that has rocked not only the region, but the world at large over the past 15 months.

News of the ceasefire agreement — the details of which are still being hammered out between negotiators in Qatar — was met with celebration and trepidation on both sides of the Gaza-Israel border. For Israelis, the expected return of dozens of hostages still held in Hamas custody marks a new phase in an ongoing internal struggle that has pitted protesters and activists against the conservative government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This government has lashed out against detractors who claim the administration used their missing loved ones as a pretext for war. For Gazans, the proposed ceasefire means not only an end to the death and destruction that has dominated their lives for more than a year, but also the start of a long process of rebuilding toward, many hope, political independence.

Here is what we know about the ceasefire, and how it is being received in the region and around the world.

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Hostages and humanitarian relief

The agreement reached is "broadly similar to a three-phase framework publicized by President Biden in late May," The New York Times said. The first phase would involve not only a ceasefire, but the release of "33 hostages seized from Israel during the attacks of October 7, 2023," CNN said. "In return, Israel will free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners." Those initial 33 hostages are "women, children, older adults and wounded civilians," The Associated Press said. "Soldiers and other male captives" would be released in the second phase of the agreement.

The Israeli hostages will be "released over the course of seven weeks," Haaretz said. But it is unclear the exact number of Palestinian prisoners that will be released, as "Hamas has not updated which of the Israeli hostages will be released alive." Israeli troops will meanwhile "pull back into a buffer zone" inside the Gaza Strip.

The cessation of fighting in the first phase will be accompanied by "600 trucks carrying humanitarian relief " scheduled to "enter Gaza daily," the Times said. Preparations along the Gaza-Egypt border are already underway to "open the Palestinian Rafah crossing to allow the entry of international aid," The Times of Israel said.

"Several unresolved points in the framework remain," Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday. "We hope these details will be finalized tonight."

'Stay committed'

The ceasefire agreement will bring about "sustainable calm," said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in a press conference announcing the deal. Barring last minute derailment, the agreement is expected to go into effect on Sunday, he said.

Israelis and Palestinians must "stay committed to this agreement" until it is "fully implemented and everyone has been returned," said the families of American hostages still held by Hamas in a statement to The Washington Post.

"American pressure finally seems to have pushed" Israeli negotiators "over the edge," said Rami Khouri, a professor at American University in Beirut, to Al Jazeera. But, the outlet added, whether the ceasefire will lead to a permanent end to the violence between Israel and Hamas is "yet to be seen."

The ceasefire is the product of "dogged and painstaking American diplomacy," President Joe Biden said in a statement.