Tue Feb 11th, 2025

A Gaza truce agreement is more possible than ever just days before Trump returns

January 13, 2025 , , ,
Kfir and Ariel Bibas, are being held hostage by Hamas along with their parents in Gaza, since the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023

With just one week to go before Donald Trump takes office as president, both Israel and Hamas expressed optimism on Monday about the possibility of reaching a ceasefire soon that would also allow for the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners.

A Hamas source said that an "initial" agreement on a truce in the Gaza Strip is expected to be signed with Israel in the coming days, given the progress being made in indirect talks with mediators in Doha.

The informant, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Negotiations continue “with an intense effort that sometimes even continues overnight, in order to agree on the general lines” an understanding that includes the exchange of hostages - 94 remain held captive in Gaza - for imprisoned Palestinian terrorists.

For his part, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar acknowledged at a press conference in Jerusalem that “negotiations are moving forward” and He said Israel was “working hard to reach an agreement.”

The source consulted from the Palestinian group detailed that the agreement would include a first phase in which Hamas will release 34 Israeli hostages in exchange for a one-and-a-half-month ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of around a thousand Palestinian prisoners.

The second phase would begin a week after the end of the first, and would see the release of “the remaining hostages in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire of another month and a half.”

In this second phase the parties will also negotiate “arrangements to end the war and the Israeli withdrawal from the Strip”, as well as a third phase of reconstruction and return of displaced Palestinians.

Since Republican Trump won the US presidential election last November, he has made it clear that one of his first objectives is to return the hostages and end the war in Gaza, after more than 15 months.

“If (the hostages) are not back by the time I take office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas, nor will it be good, frankly, for anyone. Chaos will break out.”“Trump said last week during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Israeli negotiator Gershon Baskin, who regularly posts his analyses on social media, also took aim at Trump's insistence.

“Trump is telling Netanyahu to end the war and he has no other choice. Even a bad deal is better than no deal at all. It should be remembered that there is no deal yet, but what is on the table looks very promising.”, the analyst described in X.

The same thesis is supported by Ofer Laszewicki, an Israeli journalist based in Spain, who explained that despite the fact that Trump is “the only president in the world who can influence Israel and, above all, Netanyahu”, a positive resolution is still unclear.

“This is the only change I see. Because both Netanyahu and Hamas are continuing with their demands and are showing no signs of changing their positions, and the mediators have so far failed to resolve the differences,” said Laszewicki, who sees the return of the hostages as crucial for Israeli society to “heal the wounds” left by the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

The fact that a truce agreement in Gaza - the only one so far was given at the end of November 2023 - may be closer This is causing concern for the right-wing wing of Netanyahu's Israeli coalition government, which is opposed to any diplomatic means to end the war.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated on Monday that he will not be part of a “defeat agreement,” insisting that now is the time to “occupy and cleanse” the entire Gaza Strip.

"The agreement that is taking shape is a catastrophe for the national security of the State of Israel," he concluded in a statement on X.

On more than one occasion, both Smotrich and the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, have threatened to to bring down the government if Netanyahu signs a truce agreement with Hamas and insisted on the opportunity to occupy Gaza.

"I don't think this parallel pressure that the far right will now put in place will prevail over Trump's," Laszewicki predicted.

Efe's Núria Garrido Gómez contributed to this Aurora article.

2 thoughts on “A Gaza truce agreement is more possible than ever just days before Trump returns”
  1. I suspect that this agreement is a surrender of Israel to Hamas. It is almost unbelievable that 34 hostages are released for XNUMX terrorists. To me it must be for the total number of hostages and on the condition that the IDF remains in Rafah and that Hamas disarms.

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