A ceasefire within the Israel-Hamas struggle might formally take impact immediately, and Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners might begin going dwelling as quickly as this weekend.
(CHEERING)
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Immediately, Israelis in Tel Aviv celebrated the announcement of a ceasefire deal within the struggle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners could begin going dwelling inside a number of days. And after two years, essentially the most lethal struggle ever between Israelis and Palestinians could quickly be over. For the most recent, we’re joined by NPR’s Greg Myre in Tel Aviv. Hello, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hello, Scott.
DETROW: Quite a lot of shifting components to this ceasefire deal. What is going on now, and what would occur after that?
MYRE: Yeah. Israel’s authorities is holding a late-night assembly. It is anticipated to approve the ceasefire deal, and when it does, it would take impact 24 hours after the vote. Now, this additionally begins the clock ticking for Israel to begin pulling again troops, however it would nonetheless have about half of Gaza underneath its management throughout this primary part. Now, the clock might be ticking for Hamas, as effectively. It must get the Israeli hostages prepared for launch. There are believed to be 20 residing hostages, 28 useless hostages. President Trump stated immediately this might occur on Monday or Tuesday.
In the meantime, Israel is to begin releasing practically 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Now, it will doubtless take many, many days. And on high of all this, Scott, Trump is predicted to go to the area over the weekend. This would come with a cease in Israel, the place he is been invited to talk to the Israeli parliament, and presumably Egypt, the place the negotiations for the ceasefire happened. So a really busy few days arising.
DETROW: However Greg, we now have had ceasefires on this struggle earlier than, and so they broke down fairly rapidly. So why is that this one totally different to this point?
MYRE: Properly, Trump put much more stress on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, greater than he did when there was a ceasefire in January that collapsed, far more than President Biden did throughout his ultimate 12 months in workplace. Trump bought Netanyahu to agree publicly to this deal, after which they put the stress on Hamas. There was a number of worldwide assist, notably from Arab states like Egypt and Qatar, who work with Hamas. And the Israeli and Palestinian publics have been simply exhausted. There are sturdy majorities on either side who needed this struggle to finish. So plenty of exhausting days forward and many might go fallacious, however there’s much more momentum and much more leaders invested in making this work.
DETROW: I wish to return to one thing you stated a number of moments in the past, although. The struggle could also be ending, however you talked about Israeli troops will nonetheless be in Gaza. How lengthy are they anticipated to remain?
MYRE: Scott, there isn’t any clear timeline. Israel has agreed to tug again in phases. It can initially transfer out of locations like Gaza Metropolis and different Palestinian inhabitants facilities. Now, they’re ultimately imagined to retreat to a buffer zone alongside the Gaza border however nonetheless on the Gaza facet of the border. Hamas had all the time demanded a full withdrawal of Israeli troops, however they only did not have the leverage in these negotiations. With Israeli troops in Gaza, it would not take a lot to restart hostilities. And only a ultimate observe, the ceasefire is not but formally in impact, and Israel did perform various airstrikes immediately saying its forces got here underneath risk.
DETROW: One large query that individuals have been asking for years, actually – who would rule Gaza going ahead?
MYRE: Yeah. That could be a enormous query. Trump’s plan, as outlined final week, says Hamas, which has dominated there for nearly 20 years, is meant to step apart, however they have not publicly agreed to do this. It is – the plan requires Palestinian technocrats to take over, not less than quickly, however nobody is aware of precisely who these persons are, what authority they might have, how lengthy they’d be there. And on high of this, there’s imagined to be a committee – a Gaza committee – that Trump and the previous British prime minister, Tony Blair, would head as a so-called board of peace. However they would not be concerned within the day-to-day working of Gaza, and it is not clear how they might tackle issues which may crop up.
DETROW: That’s NPR’s Greg Myre becoming a member of us from Tel Aviv. Thanks a lot.
MYRE: Positive factor, Scott.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts could fluctuate. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
