On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Israel and Hamas reached a deal that placed a temporary ceasefire between the two parties after 15 months of violent conflict (since Hamas’s attacks on October 7, 2023) and an estimated 47,000 Palestinian lives lost. The deal includes a three-stage process that aims to put an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, to reconstruct the Gaza strip, and to relieve tensions across the Middle East region.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas bases itself upon a proposal that former U.S. President Joe Biden organized in May of 2024, and the conditions within the deal went under effect on Sunday, January 19.
Conditions regarding the first stage of the ceasefire requires Israel to extract their troops from the Netzarim Corridor and densely populated areas in Gaza; however, this does not mean that Israeli forces completely withdrew from the Gaza region, as they remain around the borders of Gaza, especially in areas like the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel must also release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from their custody. In exchange for the 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, Hamas must free 33 Israeli hostages, in intervals, by the end of February. Additionally, international aid to the Gaza region strengthens, as over 10,000 humanitarian convoys entered Gaza since the ceasefire started. As of February 11, 16 Israelis returned home along with five Thai hostages, and nearly a quarter of Palestine’s prisoners also returned to Gaza.
The general premise of the second stage aims to finalize the ceasefire, continue the exchanges between Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages, and a complete removal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
The third stage of the deal finalizes the conflict between Israel and Hamas. This last portion of the deal sees the retrieval of dead Israeli hostages and a goal to rebuild Gaza. TIME Magazine reports, “Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated last month that 69% of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including over 245,000 homes.” On February 4, newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump made plans to grant the U.S. authority over the reconstruction of the Gaza strip during a press conference he held with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Problems involving compliance between Israel and Hamas lower the chances of the ceasefire deal transitioning towards the second stage. Since the ceasefire went under effect, over 80 Palestinians died to Israeli forces. Additionally, Hamas claims that Israel returns hostages at an inefficient rate, and that Israel actively stops numerous humanitarian convoys from entering the Gaza enclave.
On Monday, February 10, Prime Minister Netanyahu returned to Israel after meeting with President Trump. On the same day, Hamas announced that they would delay the upcoming hostage exchange originally scheduled for Saturday, February 15, for an undisclosed amount of time. As a response, Trump and Netanyahu threatened to cut the ceasefire deal early if Hamas failed to return the remaining Israeli hostages by Saturday, February 15.
On February 20, Hamas returned the bodies of four hostages captured during the October 7 attacks following the threats from the U.S. and Israel. Among the four bodies returned, three of them include infant Kfir Bibas, his brother Ariel Bibas, 5, and his mother, Shiri Bibas, 33. Israel identified the fourth hostage as Oded Lifshitz, 83. Hamas intends to conduct their final hostage exchange of the first phase on Saturday, February 22, and return six living hostages in Cairo, Egypt.
As of February 20, the ceasefire remains under the first stage; however, Israel and Hamas begin to discuss plans for the second stage in the week following Hamas returning Israel’s four deceased hostages.
