After more than a year of fighting, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on a multi-phased ceasefire earlier this week. This would put an end to the devastating war in Gaza.
GBH’s Shirin Jafaari is a reporter for The World. She joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath on Wednesday to talk about the ceasefire, what it means and how it will be implemented. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: Last time we talked, we were talking about history. This time, we’re very much right in the present. Tell us about what we know about the substance of the deal so far — details are still emerging.
Shirin Jafaari: Yeah, absolutely. [On Wednesday], President Biden, Qatari and Hamas officials all say that a deal has been reached, but we don’t have a confirmation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His office put out a statement [on Wednesday] saying that several items are still being finalized and that they hope that this can be done soon.
Once everything is finalized, the deal has to be formally ratified by the Israeli cabinet. So, there are still some moving parts, but I do have a draft of the deal in front of me. A Hamas official shared the document with me [on Wednesday]. What I can see in the deal is that it is going to happen in three phases.
In the first one, Hamas is going to release Israeli hostages. These are mainly women, children and older adults, as well as some people who’ve been injured. And then, President Biden said [Wednesday] that there are some Americans among the hostages who are going to be released, once Hamas does that.
In exchange, Israel will release a number of Palestinian prisoners — and that will also include a number of prisoners that have been discussed in the negotiations — and then will start to withdraw its troops from parts of the Gaza Strip. That means Palestinians can then return to what is left of their homes, and then humanitarian aid can start getting in.
This initial phase is going to take about six weeks.
Rath: Do we have a sense of what’s going to happen in the second and third phases?
Jafaari: So, while the first phase is taking place, the Israeli and Palestinian officials are going to negotiate the rest of the phases: phase two and phase three. This is going to happen through mediation — through Qatar, Egypt and U.S. officials, you know, Israelis and Palestinians don’t talk directly. These negotiations happen through mediation.
Those discussions are going to be about how many hostages and prisoners are going to be released in those phases, where Israeli forces are going to be stationed in the Gaza Strip and who is going to govern Gaza once the Israeli troops are out.
Rath: What have you been hearing from people inside Gaza and Israel?
Jafaari: You know, in Gaza, this is a huge moment. People have been waiting for this moment for months. The news about a ceasefire has been swirling around for days, and people were holding their breath to see if this was going to happen or not because we have been here in the past and it hasn’t happened. So today, as the news broke there, there was celebration.
One resident that I have been in touch with sent me a video. You can see how excited people are — you know, chanting and celebrating. I also heard from Dr. Majed Jaber. This is a doctor who has been working at a hospital inside Gaza, and we’ve been in touch over the past few months.
He’s been treating patients who have been injured in the war, and this is what he told me about how he feels.
Dr. Jaber: I’ve lost a lot of family members. We’re homeless. We’re trying to make ends meet and survive, and just to see some light finally at the end of the tunnel is just something I cannot express with words.
Jafaari: You know, Arun, he told me that, yes, he is excited. This was the moment he had been waiting for. But he’s also waiting to hear more about what this deal is.
Dr. Jaber: Times and times, there have been a lot of violations to these agreements. We don’t know what’s going to happen with this far-right Israeli government. Maybe the first phase of the deal goes on. Well, what about the rest?
Jafaari: So, cautious optimism there from Dr. Majed Jaber inside Gaza.
In Israel, two people are trying to figure out the details of the deal — who will be released? Which hospitals are going to come home? How are these different phases of the plan going to play out?
One representative for the families of the hostages told us today that this is a positive first step, but the families are hoping that all of the remaining hostages can return home.
Rath: This deal has been a long time in the making. Tell us about what have been the main sticking points here.
Jafaari: Yeah. You know, there’s a lot of mistrust between the two sides. One of the main sticking points has been whether this is going to be a permanent ceasefire or a temporary one.
Israeli officials have said, you know, they want to be able to continue their military operations until all of the hostages are back home, and then Hamas officials say they want a complete end to Israel’s military operations inside Gaza.
Israel also wants to keep control of one of the strategic points in Gaza: the Philadelphi Corridor. That was a sticking point. This is a strip of land between Gaza and Egypt on the border.
It also wants to keep forces in a buffer zone inside Gaza. The size of that buffer zone has also been a sticking point. Hamas wants it to be smaller; Israel wants it to be larger.
And then, also, this debate about how many prisoners, which hostages, which prisoners are going to go home or not. These are some of the main sticking points, and it’s taken months and months of negotiations to be able to reach this point.
Rath: Over all of these months, all the previous attempts were unsuccessful, and President Biden even said that this version is pretty much what has been on the table for a while. So what’s changed?
Jafaari: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve been here before so many times in the past,when it just seemed like the deal was imminent and we were going to see celebrations and, you know, this moment is going to happen. But then, at the last minute, things changed, and each side blamed the other for walking away from the deal.
This time, what changed? I think it seems like both sides are exhausted. Hamas has lost a lot of fighters. Israeli forces have killed its top leaders, so that might have played a role. And then, officials from the incoming U.S. administration have been involved in these negotiations — specifically, Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. He has been involved in these negotiations.
Trump has been very clear about what he wants from this deal. He says, you know, he wants the deal to be done before he takes office. He said if it doesn’t happen, “all hell will break out.” So he’s been very clear about that.
All in all, it just seems like pressure from the U.S., as well as extortion from both sides, have led to this moment. Now, we will just have to wait and see if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet will put their final stamp of approval on this deal.
