It was almost immediate. Thousands of Gazans (aerial photographs show a mass on Rashid, the coast road) displaced again and again in two years of Israeli invasion have begun, after the ceasefire came into force. The army announced it at 12:00 local time (11:00 in mainland Spain), although according to the text of the agreement it happened automatically this morning, when the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light by a large majority to the first phase of Donald Trump’s peace plan. The troops have already completed, in fact, their partial withdrawal, from where they will still control half of Gaza, facing the next challenge: the exchange, in the coming days, of the last 48 hostages in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. And that Hamas will be disarmed “by hook or by crook.”
A spokesman for the military army has announced to the Gazans that “it will allow movement from south to north” through the two routes that cross the Strip, Rashid and Salahedinne, in the interior, but has warned them not to approach the troops, reminding that “they will continue to be present in various areas of Gaza.” “Approaching them puts your life in danger,” he said.
In particular, it has defined as “extremely dangerous” approaching “the areas of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, Sheyaia and any area with a concentration of troops”; to the Rafah crossing, to the border with Egypt; the one known as the Philadelphia Corridor, already part of Jan Yunis. He has also prohibited anyone, including fishermen, from “entering the sea in the coming days.”
Shortly after the start of the ceasefire, Netanyahu addressed the nation in a pre-recorded speech in which he presented himself as the captain of a ship that has overcome all kinds of “internal and external pressures.” He has taken credit for having guaranteed the release of the last 48 hostages without troops having to completely withdraw from Gaza and has presented the ceasefire as the result of a mix of “massive military pressure” for two years and “massive political pressure” from the president of the United States, Donald Trump. “We promised and we delivered,” he boasted.
But, above all, he has made it clear that if Hamas does not disarm itself “by good means”, as contained in the second phase of Trump’s plan, the message, directed directly at its ultranationalist partners (who voted against the agreement), opens the door to (with almost daily bombings against Hezbollah targets, despite the existence of a ceasefire since last year).
Israel has also published the list of the 250 Palestinian prisoners it will release: those serving at least a life sentence for participating in or organizing attacks against Israelis. He obtained the green light from the Executive, already in the early hours of this Friday and after several hours of meeting to discuss the first phase of Trump’s agreement.
All ministers voted in favor of the text, except those of Jewish Power and Religious Zionism (with one exception). They are the two religious ultranationalist parties that aspire to annex Gaza and rebuild Jewish settlements.
Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, participated in the Executive meeting, in an example of the dependence that Israel has on its great ally and the level of Trump’s involvement in the Gaza agreement, which, from the moment in which the US president holds the phone to Netanyahu while reading a written text of apology to the first Minister of Qatar, Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, for having bombed his country.
The text of the agreement, revealed by Israeli public radio and television, clearly states that the approval of the Executive implies “the immediate end of the war.” In fact, Jalil al Hayya, the head of the Hamas negotiating team whom Israel had tried to assassinate weeks before in Qatar, assured on Thursday afternoon that he had “guarantees from the United States and the mediating countries.” [Qatar y Egipto] and from Türkiye that the war is completely over.”
Netanyahu’s office approved the “framework for the release of all hostages, both alive and dead.” In his speech this Friday he also made no mention of the “end of the war.”
All in just 36 dizzying hours, in which Trump announced; The parties and the mediators signed it without media coverage in Egypt, the Israeli Army stopped the bombings and withdrew at full speed (it had more time, up to 24 hours) to facilitate the exchange, which still does not have a defined date. Netanyahu has also been ambiguous in his intervention (“in the coming days”). Trump placed it around Monday (when he will speak before the Israeli Parliament) or Tuesday.
