Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza

The Gaza War: Israel’s Fate in the War and Hamas’s Impact on the State of the Gaza Strip, as Revised by Mr. Madhoun

The deal comes after weeks of a number of intensive rounds of indirect negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha between Israel and Hamas, mediated by facilitators from U.S., Egypt and Qatar. Envoys from both President Biden’s administration and President-elect Trump’s team were also there, pressuring the sides to close a deal.

“I’ve just been advised that there’s been a ceasefire announced in Gaza. “Before we all celebrate, we’re all going to want to see how well that does,” Risch said.

In the first phase, lasting six weeks, Hamas promises to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for a far greater number of Palestinian detainees. It’s not clear how many are involved, since the group wants more detainees per each hostage freed alive, but has not said how many are still living. Israel believes most are. The total number of Palestinians released from Israeli custody is expected to be around 1,000, according to a Palestinian official who was not authorized to speak to the media.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages into Gaza. A similar deal with Israel and Hamas in late 2023 freed around 100 hostages and led to the rescue and death of others.

The Palestinian power in Gaza is dominated by Hamas even after 15 months of Israeli bombardment. Although many Palestinians have criticized the group’s decision to carry out the October 2023 attack — unleashing a war that has killed tens of thousands of Gazans and reduced cities to rubble — it has faced relatively little popular unrest.

Hamas has celebrated the provisional cease-fire agreement announced on Wednesday as an “accomplishment,” but its future role in Gaza remains uncertain.

Ibrahim Madhoun is an analyst who is based in Turkey and he said thatHamas will be present in every detail. “Trying to bypass Hamas will be like burying your head in the sand.”

Mr. Madhoun acknowledged that Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, had suffered losses, but said it was still “standing on solid ground” and had recruited new people to replace those killed. The secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, said this week that the United States had assessed that Hamas has brought in a number of new fighters as opposed to the number it has lost in the war.