Below are the main points of the draft ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas

Qatari mediators sent Israel and Hamas a draft proposal for an agreement to stop fighting in the Gaza Strip and exchange hostages with Palestinian prisoners as a first step towards ending the war that has been ongoing for 15 months.

A week before US President-elect Donald Trump assumes his duties to succeed President Joe Biden, officials said… The breakthrough has been achieved In talks in Doha, an agreement may be soon.

However, many details about implementing the ceasefire remain to be agreed upon, and officials from all parties said no agreement has yet been reached.

Below are the main points of the draft, according to an Israeli official and a Palestinian official. Hamas did not provide any details.

The return of the hostages in stages

In the first phase, 33 hostages will be released. These include children, women including female soldiers, men over 50 years of age, the wounded and sick. Israel believes most of them are alive but has not received official confirmation from Hamas.

• The first phase will last for several weeks, although the Israeli official said the exact duration has not yet been determined. The Palestinian official said that the matter would last 60 days.
• If all goes as planned, on the sixteenth day after the deal enters into force, negotiations will begin in a second phase, with the aim of securing the return of the remaining living hostages – male soldiers and young civilians – and the return of the bodies. Of the dead hostages.
• In exchange for the release of the hostages, Israel will release a large number of Palestinian prisoners from its prisons, including some who are serving long sentences for deadly attacks, although their exact number will depend on how many hostages are still alive. The Israeli official said the number would be “several hundred,” while the Palestinian official said it would be more than 1,000.
• It has not yet been agreed where the prisoners will be sent, but no one convicted of murder or deadly attacks will be released to the West Bank.
• No one who participated in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel will be released.

Israeli forces will withdraw

Israel will not completely withdraw its forces until all hostages are returned, but there will be a gradual withdrawal, with Israeli forces remaining around the border to defend Israeli border towns and villages.

• There will be security arrangements in the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt, along the southern end of Gaza, with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.
• Unarmed residents of northern Gaza will be allowed to return, with a mechanism in place to ensure that no weapons are transferred there. Israeli forces will withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip.
• The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza will begin operating gradually, allowing medical and humanitarian cases to pass outside the Strip to receive treatment.

Increase aid

There will be a significant increase in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, where international bodies, including the United Nations, say the population is facing a severe humanitarian crisis.

Israel allows aid to enter the Gaza Strip, but there are disagreements about the quantity allowed to enter as well as the quantity that reaches the needy, with the increasing problem of looting by criminal gangs.

Who will run Gaza?

Who will run Gaza after the war is one of the unknowns in the negotiations. The current round of talks appears to have left this issue out of the proposal due to its complexity and the possibility that it would derail a limited deal.

Israel said it would not end the war and leave Hamas in power. It has also refused to administer Gaza by the Palestinian Authority, the Western-backed body created under the interim Oslo peace accords three decades ago and which exercises limited sovereignty in the occupied West Bank.

Israel has also said from the beginning of its military campaign in Gaza that it will maintain security control over the Strip after the fighting ends.

The international community has said Gaza should be run by Palestinians, but efforts to find alternatives to the main factions among civil society or tribal leaders have proven largely futile.

However, there have been discussions between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States about an interim administration to administer Gaza until the reformed Palestinian Authority can take over.