Israel and Hamas have agreed to a broad “peace deal” brokered by the Trump administration. The agreement, at the very least, involves a cease-fire between the two sides, a prisoner exchange and a partial pullback of Israeli troops in Gaza — all of which appears to be underway. Simon Rabinovitch, Stotsky Professor in Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies at Northeastern University, says news of the deal was greeted with “a lot of optimism” and a “powerful sense of relief.”
So far, the sides have agreed to several key points: a cease-fire; that Hamas would release its remaining hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners; and that Israeli troops would partially withdraw. “The difference this time is that there are parameters to end the conflict, and most of all, an agreement for all remaining hostages, alive and dead, to return,” Rabinovitch says. “Israelis want the hostages returned and can’t envision an end to the conflict without that taking place.”
These initial steps constitute “phase one” of a larger 20-point plan that includes a series of ambitious but mostly blurry bullet points — the final step of which is Israel “progressively hand[ing] over the Gaza territory it occupies” to a transitional authority, according to the plan.
