Getting a truce between Hamas and Israel was excruciating. Now comes the hard part
CBC
The contrasting reactions between Palestinians and Israelis to the long-awaited news of an impending hostage exchange and ceasefire have been telling.
As word of an agreement spread across Gaza, there was jubilation and joy that the devastation inflicted by Israel's bombs might finally end and that hundreds of thousands of displaced people might be able to return to their former neighbourhoods, even if their dwellings have been turned to rubble.
The United Nations estimates more than two-thirds of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged. The unrelenting Israeli bombardment over the last 15 months has also killed more than 46,500 people, according to Palestinian officials.
In the occupied West Bank, there were also celebrations amid claims of victory. Hundreds of Palestinians serving jail sentences in Israeli prisons — some for violent crimes — are set to be freed to return to their families, along with many others who were detained without ever facing a trial.
But in the streets of Jerusalem on Thursday morning, there was no such euphoria. One group of protesters draped Israeli flags over caskets to symbolize the hostages they say the deal will likely leave behind in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel's cabinet, which has still to officially endorse the deal, delayed a morning vote on the agreement, accusing Hamas of reneging on it just hours after it was signed.
Under the deal reached on Wednesday, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israeli forces will pull back from many areas in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be able to return to what's left of their homes, and there would be a surge of humanitarian assistance.
With roughly 30 detainees and prisoners released for every Israeli hostage, as many as 1,000 Palestinians could be released. More than 60 Israelis are believed to be still alive and held captive in Gaza, but only the very young or very sick and young women will be included in the first group to be returned, beginning on Sunday.
The announced deal has split the country.
"Israelis are very happy about the deal, and simultaneously tormented and agonizing over it," Dahlia Scheindlin, a Canadian Israeli pollster and political analyst based in Tel Aviv, told the BBC.
While acknowledging that 33 hostages would be released in the first phase, "nobody knows if it will actually reach a second phase."
The only pause in the war came in November 2023, when 105 captives were freed by Hamas. But that ceasefire collapsed.
That pause came nearly two months after militants from Hamas and other groups in Gaza rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages, according to Israeli government tallies. In the war that followed, Israel says 405 of its soldiers died, as have some of the hostages, either by execution or accidentally during Israeli attacks.
Even before U.S. President Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump made competing statements this week taking credit for the deal, there was widespread talk in Israel of betrayal. Israeli media has run stories alleging secret deals between Netanyahu and his far-right partners to resume the war after the initial six-week pause and damn the hostages to their fate.
