Israel, Hamas Agree to Ceasefire Deal to Pause War in Gaza
(Bloomberg) -- Israel and Hamas agreed to free dozens of hostages and pause the war in Gaza that’s killed tens of thousands of people in the last 15 months and caused turmoil across the Middle East.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Chicago Agency Pitches $1.5 Billion Plan to Fix Transit Woes
NYC Commuters Get New Way to Dodge Traffic: $95 Helicopter Rides
Churches, Cinemas — and Moon Artifacts — Top List of Endangered Monuments
A ceasefire will start Sunday — a day before Donald Trump succeeds Joe Biden as US president — and last six weeks, Qatari and American officials, who mediated between the warring sides, said. Thirty-three hostages captured after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 will be released, while Israel will withdraw from populated areas of the Gaza Strip and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Biden and Trump, whose Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff was involved in the latest conversations, both took credit for the deal. Trump said it could have only happened with his November election victory, while Biden said it was the result of painstaking American diplomacy over many months.
Biden made clear he wants the ceasefire to turn into a permanent end to hostilities. Achieving that will be complicated, not least because many Israeli politicians want the war to continue until Hamas — designated a terrorist group by the US and many other countries — is destroyed as a ruling force in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas continued to negotiate the final details overnight via the mediators and Israel’s security cabinet is expected to vote on the deal on Thursday. While the ministers are expected to approve it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent hours in meetings with some far-right members of the coalition in recent days to persuade them a truce in Israel’s best interests.
The fighting has destroyed much of Gaza, a strip of land on the Mediterranean coast that’s home to more than 2 million Palestinians. A truce will also lead to an increase in humanitarian aid to the territory, Biden said.
For Israel, a hiatus will relieve an economy weakened by more than a year of warfare. Israelis have become wearier of the conflict over time, with their military struggling to fully subdue Hamas — despite most its fighters being killed — and over 400 soldiers dying in combat.
Once the ceasefire starts, Israel and Hamas will start talks over the release of the rest of the 98 hostages still in Gaza and over the Palestinian territory’s reconstruction and future governance. While Israel wants Hamas to play no part in the latter, it’s unclear if any other entity is capable or willing to take power.
“During the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end of the war,” Biden said in a speech from the White House.
Netanyahu thanked Biden and Trump for their help in advancing the release of the hostages and said he would meet Trump in Washington soon.
Hamas said in a statement that the accord was the result of “the legendary resilience of our great Palestinian people.”
A person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private assessments, said negotiators believe 24 of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase are alive.
Among those to be released is Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American who was captured in the Oct. 7 attack, according to a senior Biden administration official. The US says it’s committed to getting all Americans out of Gaza, including those who are dead.
Word of the ceasefire sparked celebrations on the streets in the Gaza Strip. More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military campaign, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’s attack in October 2023. Its fighters raided southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.
Israel says it has killed about 20,000 Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, equating to more than half of Hamas’s pre-war fighter numbers of about 35,000. Yet this week US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Hamas has recruited almost as many militants as it’s lost since the start of the conflict, comments that underscored US skepticism about the prospects of Israel’s effort to demolish the group.
Wider Turmoil
The war has caused crises in the wider Middle East, with other Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel stepped up attacks against Hezbollah in September, killing its top leaders and severely degrading the group in a ground and aerial campaign that ended with a truce in late November.
Israel’s actions sparked a global backlash, with a United Nations special envoy saying there were reasonable grounds to conclude the country had committed genocide in Gaza. Rights groups including Amnesty International came to the same conclusion.
Although Israel and the Biden administration rejected that conclusion, the US and other Group of Seven nations repeatedly urged Netanyahu to do more to protect civilians in Gaza. The Israeli leader is wanted on charges of war crimes before the International Criminal Court.
The ceasefire comes more then a year after a week-long truce in November 2023 — the only one before now — under which more than 100 hostages were released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.
“Finally, the focus can turn from military operations to political processes and saving human lives,” said Dana Stroul, a Pentagon official until 2023 who’s now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The strategic table has been reset.”
The Houthis have all but shut the southern Red Sea to Western ships with persistent missile and drone attacks, while Iran and Israel briefly exchanged direct fire in April and October. It’s still unclear if the Houthis will stop their maritime assaults and attacks on Israel if the Gaza truce holds.
--With assistance from Alisa Odenheimer, Iain Marlow, Akayla Gardner, Skylar Woodhouse and Golnar Motevalli.
(Updates with context.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.