Extract from ABC News
Analysis
Finally, a glimmer of good news in a story that has otherwise been unrelentingly grim.
If all goes to plan, the guns in and around Gaza are set to fall silent in coming hours — for four days at least.
Four parties have agreed to a deal under which 50 hostages currently held in Gaza will be released.
The agreement follows weeks of negotiations between Israel and the US on one side and Hamas on the other, with Qatar as the mediator.
It's good news in the sense that 50 women and children — never combatants in this war — will be released and allowed to return to Israel. Some of them are foreign citizens — for example, there will be three American citizens among them — and they will then be free to return to their countries of origin.
A group of Palestinian women and teenagers held in Israeli jails will also be released and a ceasefire will allow aid into Gaza.
The hostages were taken when Hamas infiltrated Israel on October 7 and wreaked havoc in several hours of terrorism. They killed 1,200 people — civilians and soldiers — and kidnapped 240 people, according to Israel.
As a result of that attack, Israel vowed to "destroy Hamas", ensuring that they never again would have the military capability to carry out another such attack.
According to figures supplied by Gazan health authorities, 14,000 people in Gaza have been killed. UNICEF says that a "horrifying milestone" has been passed, with the reported number of Palestinian children killed exceeding 5,000.
The first agreement of any kind
Since the war started this hostage deal is the first agreement of any kind. In the early days the US tried to pressure Israel for humanitarian corridors with regular pauses in fighting but Israel would not agree, saying that this would allow Hamas to regroup.
What's changed inside Israel is public opinion. In the days after October 7, anger in Israel was palpable. There was a strong desire for revenge against Hamas.
That desire still exists, but public opinion has built for the view that the priority of the government must first be to secure the safe return of the hostages — then to try to destroy Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued that it was possible to do both simultaneously. He argues that the only reason this current deal is being agreed to is because Hamas has taken such a military pounding that they want a respite.
Wherever the truth lies, there are bright linings to this otherwise dark cloud — firstly, that these 50 hostages (including as many as 30 children, and a 10-month-old baby) will be released.
And secondly, that even in the darkness of this war these four parties can make an agreement.
Under the deal, three Palestinian prisoners – women and teenagers – currently in Israeli jails will be released for each hostage. So 150 Palestinians will be freed in the first group.
After that, Israel has said it will continue the ceasefire for one day for every 10 additional hostages released.
It will allow 300 aid trucks each day to enter Gaza. The ceasefire will also allow seriously injured people to be treated as medical supplies reach the strip.
The pressure is on Netanyahu
A central political dynamic to all this is Benjamin Netanyahu — he is fighting for his political survival.
There is considerable anger inside Israel towards Netanyahu over October 7 — former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, a political rival of Netanyahu, has said that the number one priority of a PM is to protect their citizens and on this basis Netanyahu failed on October 7.
Mr Barak acknowledged that while the war is going on, the Israeli public will most likely lock in behind their leader.
But Netanyahu's stocks are falling. A new opinion poll by Bar Ilan University found less than 4 per cent of Jewish Israelis regarded Netanyahu as trustworthy when it came to information about the war — a poor result for a war-time leader who needs to win the trust of the public.
Politically, the pressure on Netanyahu is to be seen to "destroy Hamas" — itself a vague notion.
Hamas is as much an idea and an ideology of "resistance" as it is a government and a military machine.
Two nights ago, Hamas fired a new barrage of rockets into Israel — a clear signal to Israelis that despite six weeks of saturation bombing and a ground offensive, Hamas has still not been destroyed.
All wars end. Interestingly, one of Washington's strongest desires was that with the five-day pause in Gaza that there be a similar calm over Israel's northern border, where the Iranian-backed Shia militia Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel.
Washington will begin putting pressure on Israel.
At some point, the great Houdini of world politics, Benjamin Netanyahu, may have to try to convince his own public that Hamas has been destroyed and Israel has won the war.
This will not be an easy task.
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