Israel, Hamas reach ceasefire deal to pause war, release hostages

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire deal that is expected to deliver a temporary halt to the fighting in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of hostages who have been in the hands of the terror group since Oct. 7, 2023. 

A United States official told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage deal. An Israeli official informed Israeli media that "differences in negotiations" had been resolved and a deal had been reached. 

The deal follows weeks of negotiations in the Qatari capital of Doha, according to The Associated Press. As part of the agreement, Hamas will release, in phases, dozens of hostages taken captive during its October 2023 terrorist attack.

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Over six weeks, 33 of the nearly 100 remaining hostages are expected to reunite with their loved ones, as The AP reported. Israel agreed to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of its end of the deal, which will also allow people displaced in Gaza to return to their homes. 

As a result of the deal, the fighting between Israel and Hamas is expected to pause for six weeks while negotiations for officially ending the war continue.

Three U.S. officials and one from Hamas confirmed that the deal had been reached at the time of AP's report, while a senior Israeli official stated that several details related to the agreement were still being worked out. 

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said the "deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity."

"It is long past time for the fighting to end and the work of building peace and security to begin," Biden said in a statement. "I am also thinking of the American families, three of whom have living hostages in Gaza and four awaiting return of remains after what has been the most horrible ordeal imaginable. Under this deal, we are determined to bring all of them home." 

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to eradicate Hamas after the terrorist group — which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 — stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking over 200 others hostage. 

Hamas-controlled health officials claim that the war has resulted in the deaths of over 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza, but these do not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The numbers also do not account for misfired rockets launched from Gaza and into Israel. 

Israel and Hamas previously reached a ceasefire agreement in November 2023, with Hamas releasing over 100 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held for terror- and other violence-related convictions in Israel. 

Aviva Siegel, a former hostage released during the November 2023 temporary ceasefire agreement, now campaigns on behalf of those still in captivity, including her husband. On the day of Hamas' attack, terrorists stormed the Siegels' home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza and drove the elderly pair to Gaza in the couple's own car.

"It was very difficult for me to understand at the beginning what I was doing in Gaza in my pajamas," Siegel told The Christian Post about her time as a hostage. "We just didn't understand because we're peacemakers. We want good for the whole world, and we want good for the people who live in Gaza."

"They took us from this world," she added. "We weren't allowed to feel; we weren't allowed to cry. I'll never understand the brutal way the terrorists treated Keith and me. I was scared all of the time they were going to kill us. They just did what they wanted; they played with our lives."

According to Siegel, Hamas starved its captives and sexually abused the young girls in captivity by treating them like "dolls." Siegel also spent time underground during her captivity, where she and her husband could barely breathe due to the lack of ventilation in the tunnel.

"I remember not only thinking that I might die or Keith might die, but I was scared to look at him, just scared to look at his chest going up and down and then maybe see death," the former hostage recalled.