"I weep with tears of joy": Israelis and Palestinians celebrate the ceasefire agreement

Special Envoy to Tel AvivIsrael and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement early this morning, the first step in Donald Trump's plan. The Israeli army has announced its preparations for any scenario, and the bombing of the Strip has continued. The Israeli government must ratify the agreement this afternoon at a meeting in Jerusalem for the ceasefire to take effect. The people of Gaza welcomed the announcement, hoping for an end to two years of destruction, death, and hunger. In Israel, the families of the hostages also see the end of a tunnel of anguish and are confident that they will soon be reunited with their loved ones. But everyone is aware that things could still go wrong. And if the first phase—with the ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners—does not go smoothly, which will not be easy, there will still be many obstacles to overcome. The coming hours and days will be critical.

Hani Askari, of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, confesses his conflicting feelings in a telephone conversation from Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Strip. "On the one hand, I feel relieved, and on the other, I am overwhelmed with grief. We live in an ocean of suffering. And yes, sometimes I see a glimmer of hope, but deep inside I feel exhaustion, loss, and fear... Grief for the loved ones who have been killed, and uncertainty because I don't have a home."

"I'm extremely anxious, waiting impatiently for the last few hours," says Mohamed Qassas, 31, who was working in a restaurant in the capital of the Palestinian enclave, from Gaza City. "It's supposed to be clearer tomorrow whether the ceasefire will go into effect or not. We're in a state of tense anticipation that's almost impossible to describe in any way. Time seems frozen," he adds.

In Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, occupied for almost two years by the forum that brings together the families of the hostages to demand that their government prioritize their release, Maccabit Meir, aunt of the twins Gali and Ziv Bergman, kidnapped in Gaza, said with emotion: "tears of joy, not of fear."

The Trump plan is ambiguous and there is currently no agreement on the key issues of the next phases.: How far will the Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza go? Is Hamas willing to disarm? Who will govern the Strip? What guarantees are there that after the release of the last hostage, Netanyahu won't return to war? After all, the Israeli prime minister has already blown up previous truces and could do so again under any pretext. The mediators, the United States and Qatar, have shown they are not neutral. The next few days will be critical.

What will happen now?

This afternoon, Netanyahu will convene his war cabinet, and later the government, to approve the agreement. Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich, the far-right leader, has already said he will vote against it and will not share the "short-sighted celebrations." But without his vote, Netanyahu still has a majority to pass the agreement. One of the unknowns is whether the governing coalition could break up and whether Netanyahu's far-right allies (Smotrich and Interior Minister Itamar Ben Gvir) will force an early election, scheduled for late 2026.

According to Reuters, the ceasefire would take effect at midnight. Twenty-four hours later, according to the plan, Israeli troops are to withdraw to a front line to allow Hamas militants to round up 20 hostages they say are still alive in the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Trump has promised the hostages' families, all will be released—both alive and dead.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stated in an interview on Fox News that Israel is already withdrawing its troops behind the "yellow line" and is ceding 53% of Gaza territory amid the ceasefire this Thursday. He also said that further withdrawals will be negotiated in later phases of the peace agreement. Sa'ar said that in the meantime, Gaza will be governed by a Palestinian council, with contributions from President Donald Trump. He acknowledged that the Palestinian Authority could play a role, but only if it adopts certain reforms.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas will have to agree on the names of the 1,950 Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged. There are conflicting reports about whether the two most notorious Palestinian prisoners, Marwan Bargouthi (of Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority) and Ahmad Sadaat (of the main left-wing party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), will be among them. Both have been imprisoned since the Second Intifada in 2002. As for the bodies of the 28 deceased Israeli hostages in the Strip, some countries, such as Turkey, have offered to send their experts to Gaza to recover them. Senior Israeli officials told CNN that they will not accept the return of the bodies of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohamed.

Since the text of the agreement has not yet been made public, it is not known whether it corresponds exactly to the first phase established in Trump's plan, This also includes the entry of humanitarian aid under United Nations control. Movements of the 8,000 trucks that have been blocked at the Rafah border crossing in Egypt since March 2 have already begun to be seen.

If this initial phase is overcome, negotiations between Israel and Hamas will continue on the following phases, which should address the demilitarization of Hamas, the return of Palestinians to their areas of origin to rebuild their homes, and the establishment of a technocratic interim government, which, according to Trump's own plan, should be subordinate to an international authority headed by Blair. Supposedly, Gaza should then be transferred to the control of the Palestinian Authority, but this is science fiction at the moment. Netanyahu has made it clear that he does not intend to accept this nor does he intend to withdraw from Gaza.