A senior Palestinian official has told the BBC that Hamas will release three Israeli female soldiers on the first day of the ceasefire period. Mediators in Doha are pushing for the pause to start tonight, rather than Sunday as planned.
Until the ceasefire takes effect, the war, which began with Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, will continue. At least 12 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in northern Gaza around the time the ceasefire deal was announced.
The latest in a series of videos that have become an hourly ritual for the past 15 months was released from northern Gaza, showing bodies being carried out of ambulances in sheets and lined up outside a hospital.
The ceasefire is a significant diplomatic achievement. It has been long awaited. Variants of the agreement have been on the table since its blueprint was announced by US President Joe Biden in May last year. "Hamas" and Israel blamed each other for the delay in the deal.
Journalists working for the BBC filmed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis dancing and shouting for joy after it became clear that a ceasefire had been reached.
Israel does not allow foreign journalists free access to Gaza, so the BBC and other media outlets rely on brave Palestinian reporters to gather news. Keeping you informed during the 15 months of this war would be impossible without them. Israel has killed more than 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
Umm Muhammad, an elderly Palestinian woman, told one of our journalists that she felt happiness and relief.
"The pain has subsided a little, although it is still there. I hope it will be drowned out by the joy. Let those of us who are in prison be released and the wounded be healed. The people are exhausted.
Besides their survival, Palestinians in Gaza have little to celebrate. Israel has killed at least nearly 50,000 people. More than two million have been displaced from their homes by Israeli military action.
Israel's response to Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, has left Gaza in ruins. According to Hamas's health ministry, the Israeli attacks have killed nearly 50,000 people, both fighters and civilians. According to a recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet, The death toll could actually be much higher.
In Tel Aviv, too, feelings were mixed for the families and sympathizers of the Israeli hostages, both dead and alive. In the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 people - women, elderly men, the sick and wounded - are to be released from captivity over a six-week period in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners. The fate of the other hostages, however, depends on future negotiations.
Discussions on the second phase of the agreement - the release of the remaining prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners - are scheduled to begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.
The first major challenge is to keep the agreement in place. Senior Western diplomats fear that after the first 42-day phase, the war could be renewed.
The war in Gaza has huge implications for the Middle East. It did not, as many feared, lead to a full-scale war in the region - the Biden administration has claimed credit for this - but it did lead to geostrategic upheaval.
"Hamas" is still capable of fighting, but it is a pale shadow of what it used to be. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister (Yoav Gallant - ed.) have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. The International Court is investigating a case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of genocide.
After intervening in the war from Lebanon, "Hezbollah" was accordingly defeated by an Israeli offensive. This was a circumstance that led to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Iran and Israel have exchanged direct attacks that have weakened Iran. Its network of allies and satellite groups, which Tehran calls the Axis of Resistance, has been crippled.
The Houthis in Yemen have largely blocked the shipping route between Europe and Asia, which runs through the Red Sea. Now, reports say, they have declared a ceasefire in their turn. Ever since they began attacking shipping at the beginning of the war, they have said that only a ceasefire in Gaza would make them stop.
With luck, political will, and serious diplomatic efforts, the truce will hold despite the inevitable violations. If it succeeds, it could stop the killings and return both Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to their families.
But after 15 months of war in Gaza, the conflict, which has been going on for more than a century, is as bitter and intractable as ever.
The ceasefire does not end the conflict. The effects of so much destruction and death will be felt for a generation to come. At least.
Translated from English: Ivo Tasev, BTA