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28 minutes ago

Israel-Hamas ceasefire live: Truce to begin on Sunday as Gaza strikes reported hours after deal announced

Biden hails agreement outlining temporary halt to 15 months of bloodshed that has left 46,000 Palestinians dead and return of hostages to families

Bel Trew
Tel Aviv
,Sam Kiley,Tara Cobham,Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Thursday 16 January 2025 08:47 GMT
Comments
Palestinians take to streets of Gaza’s Khan Younis to celebrate Hamas ceasefire

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Israel intensified strikes on Gaza hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced, residents and authorities in the Palestinian enclave have said, as mediators sought to quell fighting ahead of the truce's start on Sunday.

The complex ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas emerged on Wednesday, after months of mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US, outlining an initial six-week halt to the 15 months of bloodshed that has devastated the coastal territory – leaving more than 46,000 Palestinians dead – and inflamed the Middle East.

However, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the agreement was still not complete and that Hamas was objecting to a part that gave Israel the ability to veto the release of certain Palestinian prisoners – even as the militant group, which controls Gaza, reportedly accepted the deal.

Israeli airstrikes continued throughout the night and early on Thursday, killing at least 46 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

Meanwhile, Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, causing no casualties.

The truce, due to come into effect on Sunday, promises the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and will allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Gaza to return to what remains of their homes.

US President Joe Biden said in Washington: “This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity.”

A senior Biden administration official credited the presence of president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as being critical to reaching the agreement.

37 minutes ago

Netanyahu claims Hamas is reneging on some of Gaza ceasefire agreements

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Hamas is reneging on some of the Gaza ceasefire agreements.

His office said the Israeli Cabinet will not meet to approve a deal on Thursday until the militant group backs down on the “last minute crisis”.

Netanyahu’s comments come after the militant group reportedly accepted the deal on Wednesday.

Tara Cobham16 January 2025 08:38
45 minutes ago

In pics: Israelis in Tel Aviv celebrate news that a ceasefire had been agreed

Israelis in Tel Aviv celebrate news that a ceasefire had been agreed
Israelis in Tel Aviv celebrate news that a ceasefire had been agreed (EPA)
Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after the ceasefire deal announcement
Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after the ceasefire deal announcement (Bel Trew/The Independent)
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar16 January 2025 08:30
1 hour ago

China says it welcomes Gaza ceasefire deal

China welcomes the Gaza ceasefire deal and hopes relevant parties can take it as an opportunity to promote de-escalation in the Middle East, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has said.

China also hoped the agreement will be effectively implemented so as to achieve a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, spokersperson Guo Jiakun said on Thursday.

Negotiators reached a phased deal on Wednesday to end the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The deal would take effect on Sunday and negotiators are working with Israel and Hamas on steps to implement it.

Guo said China will continue efforts to provide humanitarian relief and help in post-war reconstruction in Gaza.

Palestinians walk past the rubble of houses destroyed in previous Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday
Palestinians walk past the rubble of houses destroyed in previous Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday (REUTERS)
Tara Cobham16 January 2025 08:08
1 hour ago

Israel should bear the primary cost of rehabilitating Gaza, says non profit

An American non-profit working in the Middle East said Israel should bear the primary cost of reconstructing and rehabilitating the Gaza Strip as it was responsible for the devastation in the enclave.

“If the world again allows Israel to externalise the costs of its crimes in Gaza, nothing will dissuade it from repeating its belligerence and abuses,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now.

Raed Jarrar, the group’s advocacy director, added: “A ceasefire agreement does not mean that Israeli war criminals who orchestrated this genocide are off the hook, and we will continue to demand accountability for their crimes.”

“The international community should also hold US officials in the Biden administration accountable for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity with their ongoing support of Israel’s war machine.”

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar16 January 2025 08:00
1 hour ago

Hamas says ceasefire deal result of Palestinians’s ‘legendary resistance’

Hamas hailed its ceasefire with Israel as the result of “the legendary resilience of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip”.

“The agreement is a milestone in the conflict with the enemy, on the path to achieving our people’s goals of liberation and return,” the group said in a statement.

Khalil al-Hayyah, the acting head of Hamas’s political bureau and chief negotiator, said the ceasefire deal represents a “new phase” which will focus on Gaza rebuilding and recovering.

“We are able - with god’s help first - and then with the help of our brothers, siblings, loved ones and supporters, to rebuild Gaza again, alleviate the pain, heal the wounds,” he said in a speech shared online by Hamas.

He also congratulated the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who will be released in the first phase of the deal: “Our heroic prisoners have an appointment with the dawn of freedom.”

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar16 January 2025 07:30
2 hours ago

Everything we know about the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas

Israel and Hamas have agreed a ceasefire deal in the Gaza war and to release some hostages after 15 months of conflict.

A week before US president-elect Donald Trump takes over from president Joe Biden, a breakthrough was achieved in talks in Doha, on a three-phase agreement that is due to come into effect on Sunday.

Both Mr Trump and Mr Biden claimed credit for the deal.

Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said measures would be taken in the coming days to enforce the agreement.

Barney Davis and Jane Dalton report:

Everything we know about the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas

Details on release of hostages, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and humanitarian aid all agreed

Alex Croft16 January 2025 07:00
2 hours ago

Watch: Palestinians take to streets of Gaza’s Khan Younis to celebrate Hamas ceasefire

Palestinians take to streets of Gaza's Khan Younis to celebrate Hamas ceasefire
Alex Croft16 January 2025 06:31
3 hours ago

US says 2 American hostages could be in first group freed from Gaza

A senior Biden administration official said two Americans, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel, are expected to be released in the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire is set to begin Sunday and last for six weeks.

There is at least one other known living American captive in Gaza, an Israeli soldier named Edan Alexander, who will be released at a later date in the second phase of the agreement, the official told the Associated Press. It’s not clear how many of the hostages are still alive.

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar16 January 2025 06:15
3 hours ago

A year of war in Gaza: A timeline of key moments

Just days before US president Joe Biden is set to leave office, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire deal after a last-minute “breakthrough” in talks.

An official close to the negotiations said a text for a ceasefire and release of hostages was presented by Qatar to both sides at talks in Doha.

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis large crowds of joyful Palestinians have taken to the streets, with people cheering and honking car horns.

Agreement was reached after the Qatari prime minister’s separately met Hamas negotiators Israeli negotiators in his office, source close to the negotiations told The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley.

Alexander Butler and Tom Watling report:

A year of war in Gaza: A timeline of key moments as ceasefire deal agreed

A year after Israel vowed to wipe Hamas ‘off the face of the earth’ following the 7 October attack into Israel the conflict has spread across the Middle East

Alex Croft16 January 2025 06:01
3 hours ago

Comment | Peace has finally come to Gaza... but at a terrible price

Great relief, then, at the Gaza ceasefire, such as it is – but also great sadness. There is no real reason why this deal, or something very much like it, couldn’t have been concluded when US president Joe Biden and his secretary of state Antony Blinken first put it on the table last May.

The “sticking points” that were obvious then haven’t materially altered in the many months since. But the price of delay has been paid by untold thousands of dead and injured civilians, the continuing pain of the hostages’ families, and the transformation of the poor but busy territory of Gaza into a desolate, uninhabitable moonscape.

The greatest of the tragedies have been inflicted on the children. It seems obvious that war crimes have been committed, just as surely as the series of events that triggered this particular phase in the Middle East, on 7 October 2023, amounted to a terrorist atrocity and an act of war.

Sean O’Grady writes:

Peace has finally come to Gaza... but at a terrible price

The timing of the Gaza ceasefire – a near-exact copy of the deal brokered by Joe Biden and Antony Blinken last May – suggests that it was Donald Trump’s bluster and threats that made the difference, says Sean O’Grady

Alex Croft16 January 2025 05:30

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