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The ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas Movement in the Gaza Strip officially began on January 19 after a last minute delay of almost three hours.
The fighting continued past the initially provisioned 8:30 a.m. [local time] deadline as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had failed to provide the names of the first three hostages due to be released. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed that a list of names had been provided and that the ceasefire would take effect from 11:15 a.m..
The exchange is set to begin at 4 p.m. Hamas published the names it said it handed over to Israel, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher. However, Netanyahu’s Office asked Israeli media not to publish their identities unless authorized by the family.
As the ceasefire entered into effect, fighter jets and drones disappeared from the skies over Gaza as the deal took effect, and aid trucks began entering into the Strip through the Karem Shalom crossing.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said earlier that 600 trucks a day would enter Gaza after the ceasefire takes effect, including 50 carrying fuel.
The first phase of the ceasefire deal, which was brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, calls for Hamas to release 33 hostages over a six-week period. It will last 42 days, and negotiations on the far more difficult second phase are meant to begin just over two weeks in.
In return for these hostages, Israel will release during the first phase at least 1,700 Palestinian prisoners, including 1,167 Gaza residents who were not involved in the surprise attack on October 7 of 2023.
The remainder of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, including male Israeli soldiers, are to be released in a second phase. A third phase is also yet to be finalized.
In the hours leading up to the start of the deal, Palestinian media reported that Israeli troops were withdrawing from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, which shares a border crossing with Egypt, in anticipation of the start of the ceasefire.
Troops were said to be regrouping along the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border. There was no comment from the IDF on the reports.
In an address to Israeli citizens on January 18 evening, Netanyahu avoided acknowledging the second and third phases of the deal.
Instead, in a 10-minute-long pre-recorded video, the premier referred to the first stage of the deal as a “temporary ceasefire,” and stressed that both Biden and Trump had underlined that Israel could return to fighting in Gaza if the next stages of the deal are not realized.
The Israeli war on Gaza, which was sparked by the October 7 Hamas-led attack, has so far claimed the lives of more than 46,000 Palestinians and displaced most of the 2,3 million inhabitants of the Strip, all while leaving most of its infrastructure destroyed.
Meanwhile on the other side, more than 1,800 Israelis have been killed so far, making this one of the bloodiest wars in the history of the country. Nearly half of the casualties were members of the IDF and security forces.
The ceasefire offers hope to end the war in Gaza and the wider conflict in the Middle East, which included confrontations in Lebanon and Yemen. However, it is still too early to assume that the ceasefire will hold up, or that Israel will move forward to the second and third phases.
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they never should have taken civilians as hostages. i’m pretty sure kidnapping is a criminal offence .
they freed 1700 palestinian hostages from the satanists in tel aviv and even if they have a kill ratio of 1:25 or even 1:50 it is still good for hamas that are living in a concentration camp against a wall of printed us dollars and free missiles. it is a glorious hamas victory. taking the civilians hostage was a great idea. the jews are going to kill all of the palestinians anyway. best the poor palestinians take as many of the baby killers with them.
hamas is the only side actually fighting the jews. the rate at which assad capitulated and the weak response from hezbollah how they imploded themselves is what angers me the most. a perfect oppertunity to defeat israel was wasted. if all sides went all in they would have had a chance of winning. the taliban offered to help hamas linerate palestine if iran gave them free passage.
assad so far has been the weakest. he should have gone all in against israel when his government was about to collapse using all his strategic weapons to militarily weaken israel. this would have forced a very different outcome to the hts advance as it would habe forced them to fight israel instead of aligning with them giving syrian land to them.
now israel destroyed all his weapons and army and hts is giving land to israel for free. assad is a moron he didnt handle the problem properly. using all syrian strategic weapons to destroy israels military bases would atleast have weakend israel significantly. more so then what hezbollah was able to achieve.
according to the un charter, “a occupied and suppressed population has the right to resist by any means”. how would you react after living in a concentration camp for decades.
yes but there are acts that are not allowed ……………taking civilian hostages is one of them
what exactly is a israeli “civilian” every male from 17 to 60 and every female to the age 45 could be conscripted
toothless hillbilly amerikunts beg russia for ceasefire–putin replies “we do not appease weak burger species”
great defeat of the jewish nazi regime
they are not defeated not even nearly so. they have subverted all governments in the world to do their bidding they control the money and corporations banks military industries the east and the west china russia europe usa all jewish colonies.
its time to wake up and fight the jews where ever you find them they are the devil jesus spoke about the serpent seed who are destroying us.
its us or them.
israel wins again.
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nsaebb/nsaebb435/
when will the germans get sent back to hell, from where they come ?
they should get sent back from sweden also, where the “jews”, banksters, have sold out the country to them.
germans outside germany are a pestilence. they spread hyperinflation of zeros.
🇷🇺=🏃♂️🤡 😆😆😆
hamas and haznoballah got annihilated, putin lovers are pissed 🇷🇺=🏃♂️🤡 😆😆😆