The Intercept – January 15, 2025
Israel Agrees to the Ceasefire It Rejected Months Ago,
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal on almost entirely the same terms as a proposal that fell apart in the summer.
By Jonah Valdez
As President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas from the White House on Wednesday, he repeated a key detail throughout his address: that the deal accepted today was the same deal he helped put on the table in May.
“This is the ceasefire agreement I introduced last spring,” Biden said, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “The road to this deal has not been easy — I’ve reached this point because of the pressure that Israel put on Hamas, backed by the United States.”
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/15/israel-hamas-ceasefire-biden-netanyahu-deaths/
Israel and Hamas reach Gaza ceasefire deal, what are the next steps?
The agreement spread over three months will see a surge in humanitarian aid, withdrawal of Israeli forces and captive exchange.
Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement after 15 months of devastating war that has left Gaza – home to 2.3 million Palestinians – in ruins.
The deal, which is expected to be implemented in three phases starting on Sunday, was approved by the Hamas group on Wednesday.
The agreement spread over three months will see a surge in humanitarian aid, gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the release of Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The deal, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, also talks about post-war reconstruction efforts in the Palestinian enclave, where more than 60 percent of buildings have been destroyed and damaged in the nonstop Israeli bombardment since October 7, 2023.
January 19 (Day 1)
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani announced on Wednesday that the deal will take effect from Sunday, when the first Israeli captives are expected to be released and guns will fall silent.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, said the situation on the ground is a mix of cautious relief, hope and lingering grief.
“Civilians are still absolutely afraid regarding the expansion of the scale of attacks in Gaza in the next 72 hours,” he said. At least 80 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air raids since the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday.
Abu Azzoum said the agreement stipulates that about 600 humanitarian aid trucks will be allowed into the Strip on a daily basis. “But Israel has a very prolonged history of violations regarding commitment to ceasefire agreements,” he said.
Aid agencies have called for unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza, where famine may have taken hold.
Relatives and supporters of the Israeli captives held in Gaza reacted to the news of the deal.
Ifat Kalderon, cousin of Israeli captive Ofer Kalderon, said in Tel Aviv that she feels joy, but also “terrible anxiety that it will actually happen”.
“It’s going to be a huge relief, first of all, whenever I see Ofer,” she said. “Second, whenever I see the last hostages crossing the border. And we are going to be here protesting every day until it’s going to happen because I don’t know if it’s going to happen.”
January 25 (Day 7)
On day seven, internally displaced Palestinians will be allowed to return to northern Gaza, which has been under a deadly military siege since October, without carrying arms and without inspection via al-Rashid Street.
Cars and any non-pedestrian traffic will be allowed to return north of the Netzarim Corridor, which divides Gaza between north and south, after vehicle inspection which will be performed by a private company to be decided by mediators in coordination with the Israeli side.
Several Palestinians told Al Jazeera they plan to return to their towns and villages the moment they get the opportunity. More than 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced due to the war.
“As soon as there is a ceasefire, I will return and kiss my land in Beit Hanoon in north Gaza,” Umm Mohamed, a 66-year-old woman who lost two of her 10 children to Israeli bombing, told Al Jazeera.
February 3 (Day 16)
No later than day 16 after the start of the ceasefire, the parties agreed to start negotiating the second phase.
February 9 (Day 22)
On day 22, civilians will be allowed to return north from both al-Rashid Street and Salah al-Din Street without inspection.
March 1 (Day 42)
This marks the end of phase one. By this date, 33 Israeli captives should have been released in exchange for 100 Palestinian prisoners.
It is also the start of phase two if things move according to plan. This includes the release of the remaining captives which are believed to number 65. In exchange, Israel is committed to withdraw from Gaza and respect a permanent ceasefire. Up to 94 Israeli captives, dead or alive, will be freed in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians. It’s believed nearly 30 captives out of 94 are dead.
Israeli forces should also begin their withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Gaza from Egypt.
Israel though has insisted that no written guarantees be given to rule out the resumption of hostilities. Hamas was reportedly given verbal guarantees by Egypt, Qatar and the US that negotiations would continue.
March 9 (Day 50)
By this date, Israel should have completed the full withdrawal of its forces from the Philadelphi Corridor.
April 12 (Day 84)
This is when the third phase should start. Details are still unclear. Should the conditions of the second stage be met, this is when bodies of the remaining captives should be handed over in return for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan to be carried out under international supervision.
There is currently no agreement over who will administer Gaza beyond the ceasefire. The US has pressed for a reformed version of the Palestinian Authority to do so.
Middle East Monitor – January14, 2025
The Fall of Israeli Impunity: The World is Starting to hold Tel Aviv Accountable for the Gaza Genocide
By Ramzy Baroud
(ﾠMiddle East Monitorﾠ) – A dramatic escape was cited by Israeli media as the reason that Yuval Vagdani, a soldier in the Israeli army,ﾠmanaged to escape justice in Brazil.
Vagdani wasﾠaccused by a Palestinian advocacy legal group, the Hind Rajab Foundation, of carrying out well-documented crimes in Gaza. He is not the only Israeli soldier beingﾠpursued for similar crimes.
According to the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (KAN), more than 50 Israeli soldiers areﾠbeing pursued in countries ranging from South Africa to Sri Lanka to Sweden.
In one case, the Hind Rajab Foundation filed aﾠcomplaint in a Swedish court against Boaz Ben David, an Israeli sniper from the 932 Battalion of the Israeli Nahal Brigade. He is also accused of committing war crimes in Gaza.
The Nahal Brigade has been at the heart of numerous war crimes in Gaza. Established in 1982, the brigade isﾠnotorious for its unhinged violence against Occupied Palestinians. Their role in the latest genocidal atrocities in the Strip has far exceeded their own dark legacy.
Even if these 50 individuals are apprehended and sentenced, the price exacted from the Israeli army pales in comparison to the crimes carried out.
Numbers, though helpful, are rarely enough to convey collective pain. The medical journal Lancet’s latestﾠreport is still worthy of reflection. Using a new data-collecting method called ‘capture–recapture analysis’, the report indicates that, by the first nine months of the war, between October 2023 and June 2024, 64,260 Palestinians have been killed.
Still, capturing and trying Israeli war criminals is not just about the fate of these individuals. It is about accountability—an absent term in the history of Israeli human rights violations, war crimes and recurring genocides against Palestinians.
The Israeli government understands that the issue now goes beyond individuals. It is about the loss of Israel’s historic status as a country that stands above the law.
As a result, the Israeli armyﾠannounced that it decided not to publicly reveal the names of soldiers involved in the Gaza war and genocide, fearing prosecution in international courts.
However, this step is unlikely to make much difference for two reasons. First, numerous pieces of evidence against individual soldiers, whose identities are publicly known, have already been gathered or are available for future investigation. Second, much of the documentation of war crimes has been unwittinglyﾠproduced by Israeli soldiers themselves.
Reassured about the lack of accountability, Israeli soldiers have taken countless pieces of footage showing the abuse and torture of Palestinians in Gaza. This self-indictment will likely serve as a major body of evidence in future trials.
All of this cannot be viewed separately from the ongoingﾠinvestigation into the Israeli genocide in Gaza by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Additionally, arrest warrants have beenﾠissued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Though these cases have moved slowly, they have set a precedent that even Israel is not immune to some measure of international accountability and justice.
Moreover, these cases have granted countries that are signatories to the ICC and ICJ the authority to investigate individual war crimes cases filed by human rights and legal advocacy groups.
Though the Hind Rajab Foundation is not the only group pursuing Israeli war criminals globally, the group’s name derives from a five-year-old Palestinian girl from Gaza who wasﾠmurdered by the Israeli army in January 2024, along with her family. This tragedy and that particular name are a reminder that the innocent blood of Palestinians will not go in vain.
Though justice may be delayed, as long as there are pursuers, it will someday be attained.
Pursuing alleged Israeli war criminals in international and national courts is just the start of a process of accountability that will last many years. With every case, Israel will learn that the decades-long US vetoes and blind Western protection and support will no longer suffice.
It was the West’s shameless shielding of Israel throughout the years that allowed Israeli leaders to behave as they saw fit for Israel’s so-called national security—even if it meant the veryﾠextermination of the Palestinian people, as is the case today in Gaza.
Still, Western governments, including the US and Britain, continue to treat wanted Israelis as sanctified heroes—not war criminals. This goes beyond accusations of double standards. It is the highest immorality and disregard for international law.
Things need to change; in fact, they are already changing.
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, Tel Aviv has already learned many difficult lessons. For example, its army is no longer “invincible”, its economy is relatively small and highly dependent, and its political system is fragile. In times of crisis, it is barely operable.
It is time for Israel to learn yet another lesson: that the age of accountability has begun. Dancing around the corpses of dead Palestinians in Gaza is no longer an amusing social media post, as Israeli soldiers once thought.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment.
Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250113-the-gaza-genocide-the-fall-of-israels-immunity/
