President Biden makes the annoucment…
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The first phase of the deal calls for a 42-day ceasefire and the release of an initial 33 hostages, U.S. officials said before the deal was announced. A senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, said three hostages would be released within 48 to 72 hours of the agreement, along with a still-unknown number of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel. This initial phase also calls for an increased flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
As the prospect of a deal neared, Israel stepped up airstrikes in Gaza. At least 62 people were killed and 253 injured in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said Wednesday that it carried out strikes on more than 50 targets across Gaza in the past 24 hours and attacked “terrorist cells, weapons depots, underground infrastructure, antitank positions and military structures of Hamas.”
Israeli officials say they believe 98 hostages remain in Gaza and that about 60 are still alive. More than 100 hostages were released during a week-long truce in November 2023. Since then, some have died in captivity, while others were rescued by Israeli forces.
At least 46,707 people have been killed in Gaza and 110,265 injured since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children…..
Implementation of the ceasefire agreement is set to start Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said Wednesday in Doha. He added that some details remain to be ironed out.
“The parties said that a number of days will be required to bring [the deal] into implementation and to be able to honor their obligations,” Al Thani said. “We hope that the coming days will not see any military operations.”….
image…Relatives and friends of Israeli hostages reacted to the news of a cease-fire deal during a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Wednesday…Oded Balilty/Associated Press
As I have said before, the repeated use of the term “POW” or “prisoners of war” in regards to this matter is egregious in its inaccuracy.
It is even worse than those on MAGA who refer to the January 6th convicts/prisoners as “POWs” or “hostages.”
Hamas and Israel have been AT WAR…….
Those fighters captured in ANY ‘War’ ARE POW’s by definition,,,,,
Incorrect. 100 percent. Hamas is not a country. There is no definition of “war” that is applicable.
You have continually attributed equivalency to Israeli (and American) civilians kidnapped by Hamas on 10/7/23 to avowed terrorists and murderers who had long ago been arrested within Israel for crimes committed inside of Israel. By no measure does the Geneva Convention apply to those people.
Calling those people “fighters” which is of course the language they would use is abhorrent for any American.
One can make a case that Palestinian prisoners inside of Israel are being detained unfairly or without cause but still that does not make them “prisoners of war” as the term is recognized.
MAGA thinks everyone behind bars of January 6 is a “prisoner of war.” What you are saying is no different, except for the fact that nobody punished for January 6 managed to directly kill anyone.
Also, the Israeli citizens as well as American citizens and citizens of other countries who were kidnapped (while so many others were murdered) in October 2023 are by no measure “POWs.” They were civilians.
In no universe should the term “POW” be used to describe anyone involved in this conflict. Hostages and prisoners yes.
Israel is releasing a far greater number of “prisoners”, the vast majority of them legitimately guilty of crimes as opposed to a finite number of civilian hostages, none of whom had committed any crime.
Let’s hope we can see the innocent people re-united with their families and in freedom as soon as possible in the next few days.