Key Points
- Both Israeli women and children and Palestinian women and children will be released as part of the deal.
- A four-day pause in fighting has also been agreed upon, with extensions possible.
- Qatar negotiated the deal but there may be one bureaucratic obstacle from an Israeli perspective.
An agreement between Hamas and Israel has been made .
Discussion about Qatar mediating negotiations between the two parties began weeks ago when Israel's retaliatory attacks on Gaza prompted a humanitarian crisis.
So what is the agreement that finally got the two parties to come to a truce, albeit a temporary one?
The agreement
Under the agreement, 50 civilian hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip are expected to be released in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons.
The Israelis to be released are also to be women and children.
They are some of the 200 that Hamas took when its fighters
Family and friends of those taken hostage on 7 October put pressure on the government to prioritise securing the release of their loved ones. Source: Getty / Ahmad Gharabli
While a statement from the did not say exactly how many Palestinians would be released, AAP reports that Hamas has said it would be 150.
The Qatari government's statement said the "number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement".
Egypt has assisted Qatar in mediation and the United States has also played a role.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said intervention by US President Joe Biden had resulted in more hostage releases and fewer concessions.
The pause in fighting
While many have called for a ceasefire, which has been consistently rejected by Netanyahu, the take place.
A four-day pause in fighting will allow for the release of civilians from both sides.
The Gaza Strip has been bombarded by Israel since Hamas launched its attack on 7 October. Source: Getty / John Macdougall
"There is an interesting term in this truce, which states that time will be given for Hamas to identify additional hostages and for each additional 10 hostages that Hamas will identify and release safely through the Red Cross, through Egypt, one additional day of truce will be agreed upon by the Israeli side," he said.
The humanitarian pause will also allow the entry of a larger contingent of
Iqtait said while the few hundred trucks of aid that would be allowed in during the four-day pause would be helpful, "it's not going to meet even the bare minimum of the humanitarian disaster that we see in the Gaza Strip."
Upon announcing the agreement in a statement on Wednesday the Qatari government said the starting time of the pause would be announced within 24 hours.
How the deal is structured
Iqtait said the agreement between Hamas and Israel had been designed in a way that made it difficult for parties to renege on the agreed upon terms.
"The way that it's been structured basically delineates that every single day Hamas will release a small number of hostages and the Israeli military will release the small numbers captives," he said.
"So if the truce is broken on the second day, then a small number of people that were agreed upon on the first day would have already been released from both the Palestinian and Israeli sides."
Israeli hostages
The Israeli hostages taken to Gaza were from communities, including collective farms, and military bases in southern Israel as well as
In addition to Israeli citizens, more than half the hostages held foreign and dual citizenship from some 40 countries according to Israel's government.
According to Hamas’ military wing, at least 22 hostages had been killed in Israeli
Throughout the weeks following the 7 October attack, Hamas had released just four hostages and Israeli forces freed one.
The Israeli military said earlier this month that it recovered the bodies of two hostages in Gaza City.
The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which participated in the 7 October raid with Hamas, announced late on Tuesday the death of another Israeli hostage.
Palestinian women and children
Iqtait said more than 5200 Palestinians were being held in Israel's prisons prior to the 7 October attack by Hamas but the number had doubled since the escalation in fighting.
Thousands of Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, among them, are a number of women and children. Source: Getty / Anadolu
The United Nations has in the past expressed serious concern over the continued detention of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities, the vast majority of whom it said had "not been convicted of any offence but are being held in pre-trial detention."
Iqtait said more than 1000 of them were under administrative detention "which basically translates to indefinite detention without trial or charge."
The UN has previously said the practice amounted "to a war crime consisting of deliberately depriving protected persons of the right to a fair and regular trial."
What are the chances the deal will go ahead?
Iqtait said there was still one bureaucratic obstacle that needed to be overcome for the agreement to go ahead.
"The Israeli Supreme Court is yet to approve the release of the 150 Palestinian children and women that the Israeli government has, in principle agreed to release," he said.
"Now the Israeli Supreme Court is considering whether to approve this decision or not, so there is still one more bureaucratic obstacle, from the Israeli side, before this truce actually comes into effect. And if the supreme court rejects, obviously, the truce and agreement and everything may actually be jeopardised."
While the longstanding conflict over the ownership and control of land has seen Israelis and Palestinians who have been detained by one another, exchanged a number of timesnot all deals have gone as planned.
In 2014, Israel agreed to abut the deal fell through
, which has gained power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the US. New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
- With additional reporting from AAP and Reuters.
