Palestinians return to rubbled homes as Gaza ceasefire takes effect; 3 Israeli ministers quit

Israel’s ground invasion resulted in deaths of more than 46,000 Palestinians and displaced nine out of 10 Gazans; offensive was launched in response to surprise attack by Hamas.

Displaced Palestinians walk past rubble to return to their homes, in the northern Gaza Strip, after Gaza ceasefire comes into effect on 19 January 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

New Delhi: After a nearly three-hour delay, during which at least 19 more Palestinians were killed in offensives carried out by Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect Sunday.

The delay was on account of Israel’s insistence that it would not honour the ceasefire until Hamas shared the names of three Israeli captives to be freed after implementation of the framework agreed upon by both parties. This framework, mediated by Qatar and the US, stipulates a temporary pause in fighting and release of three female Israeli captives and about 95 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children, on the first day. 

For the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza, the ceasefire comes as a temporary respite from the Israeli offensive launched on 27 October 2023 in response to the massacre of more than 1,000 Israelis in the surprise attack by Hamas on Israeli mainland on 7 October that year.

More than 46,000 Palestinians were massacred and nine of 10 Gazans internally displaced over a period of nearly 15 months in the Israeli ground invasion that followed. Israeli forces reduced cities in the Palestinian enclave to rubble, and resulted in a humanitarian crisis.

Even with the ceasefire taking effect, a map released by the IDF suggests Israeli troops inside Gaza will be deployed mostly along crossings with Israel and Egypt and on a road that divides northern and southern Gaza.

The ceasefire is a result of months-long talks mediated by the US and Qatar along with Egypt. The framework comprises three phases: in the first phase, which will continue over six weeks, 33 Israeli hostages are expected to be released in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Since Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the ceasefire would indeed take effect, videos of Palestinians returning to their destroyed houses in Gaza have been doing rounds on the internet. Hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid are expected to reach Gaza to support those returning to their homes. 

Netanyahu in a statement said Israel reserves the right to resume war on Gaza with the support of the US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, “if necessary”.

“We are thinking of all our hostages … I promise you we will achieve all our objectives and bring back all hostages … With this agreement, we will bring back 33 of our brothers and sisters, the majority [of them] alive,” news agency AFP quoted him as saying.

He emphasised that the ceasefire is “temporary” and if “forced” to resume war, Israel will “do it with force”. He also said the 15-month war “changed the face of the Middle East”.

Meanwhile, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his far-Right Otzma Yehudit party walked out from Netanyahu’s government to express their disapproval of the framework agreed upon with Hamas. In a statement, Otzma Yehudit called the deal a “capitulation to Hamas” and denounced what it called the “release of hundreds of murderers” and the “renouncing of the [IDF’s] achievements in the war” in Gaza.

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, and Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf too submitted their resignations. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who too is opposed to the any kind of deal with Hamas, said his party would stay on in government because he had been given guarantees of a “gradual takeover” of Gaza.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)