US President Joe Biden and other leaders of the global community have hailed the ceasefire deal brokered between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the 15- month brutal war in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire starting on Sunday to halt the war in Gaza, Qatar’s Prime Minister said on Wednesday.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said the deal will lead to the release of Israeli captives and a surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza. The deal is expected to take effect from Sunday January 19.
Speaking after the deal was announced the US president said his team and that the in-coming President Donald Trump and Trump worked ‘as one’
The deal involves a full and complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the hostages held by Hamas.
Biden said the first phase will allow Palestinians to return home to their neighbourhoods and let more humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip
The outgoing US president has said key members of his administration “worked relentlessly” to get the deal.
“I’d also note that this deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration,” he told reporters at the White House.
“For the past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team,” Biden said.
Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas said the ceasefire deal was due to Palestinian ‘steadfastness’
It said its ceasefire deal with Israel to halt the war in Gaza was the result of the “steadfastness” of the Palestinian people and its own “resistance”.
“The ceasefire agreement is a result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip for over 15 months,” the group said, adding that it paved “the way towards the realisation of our people’s aspirations for liberation and return”.
Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said the agreement was reached “after more than a year of strenuous efforts” mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US.
“With this agreement, I stress the importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, to confront the current catastrophic humanitarian situation, without any obstacles,” the Egyptian president said in a post on X.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also welcomed the ceasefire and stressed that the “priority now must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by this conflict”.
“The United Nations stands ready to support the implementation of this deal and scale up the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief to the countless Palestinians who continue to suffer,” he told a news conference.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s former humanitarian aid chief said “I’m not yet convinced that the conditions are such that these essentially different positions by the two parties [Israel and Hamas] will be reconciled,” Griffiths told Al Jazeera.
Israel views the agreement as one to secure the release of captives held in Gaza, he explained, while for Hamas it is one to secure a permanent ceasefire. “These are not the same objectives,” Griffiths said.
Griffiths also said “there is quite a lot of opportunity for one or other party not to go to the second or the third phase” of the agreement.
“For Israel, the war aims have not radically changed. We’ve heard still that Israel reserves the right to re-engage, although I think the deal itself is very positive. We know that there is no resolution at the moment to the day after, the governance of the Palestinian territories, the role of Hamas.”
Griffiths also noted that it remains unclear whether Israel will continue with its plans to ban UNRWA – the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – at the end of January, something that would severely curtail the ability to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
“If you want major humanitarian aid … you need UNRWA, you need them there,” he said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a televised statement that the deal announced between Israel and Hamas was the “right move” to bring all the captives home.
