Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to pause their fighting in the Gaza Strip, Arab mediators and an Israeli official said, opening a pathway to end a 15-month war that has laid waste to the enclave, threatened to spark a regional conflict, and roiled politics in the West.
The deal will be implemented in phases, beginning with an exchange of some of the hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and moving on to talks over a broader end to the fighting.
Those latter talks will likely be contentious, as Israel and Hamas remain at odds over whether there should be a permanent end to the fighting. But the two sides have agreed to look past those differences to close a deal now.The terms of the agreement aren’t substantially different from those that were available months ago when more Israeli hostages remained alive and before thousands more Palestinians lost their lives. But several factors have pushed the parties closer recently.Hamas has been battered and isolated by Israeli attacks that took out much of its leadership and cowed its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, and major backer Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has solidified his governing coalition, reducing the leverage of right-wing parties who have opposed any deal, and has been emboldened by Israel’s wins on the battlefield.And both sides have been galvanized by President-elect Donald Trump’s imminent return to office. The incoming president said a week ago that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if the hostages aren’t released by the time he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, repeating a threat he had made earlier. He hasn’t explained what he means, but said last week it wouldn’t be good for Hamas or “frankly, for anyone.
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