Hamas will reportedly release three female Israeli hostages on Sunday as part of a newly inked ceasefire agreement that comes in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to rain "hell" on the terror group should it fail to release the captives before his inauguration.
The agreement is largely based on a Biden administration proposal authored in May that Hamas rejected at the time. The three-phase deal would initiate a 42-day ceasefire in which Hamas releases 33 women and children, in addition to those who are wounded and over 50 years old. In return, Israel would release 30 Palestinian prisoners for every living civilian hostage who is set free and 50 Palestinian prisoners, including some serving life sentences, for every female Israeli soldier freed, according to the Associated Press.
Hamas is still holding 94 Israeli and American hostages, though at least 34 are believed dead. Hopes for a deal seemed dim in the Biden administration's final days, but talks accelerated in recent weeks after Trump warned there will be "all hell to pay" for Hamas if it failed to free the remaining hostages before he enters the White House on Jan. 20. Trump took credit for the deal in a Wednesday afternoon post on Truth Social, his social media platform.
"We will continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords," Trump wrote. "This is only the beginning of great things to come for America, and indeed, the World! We have achieved so much without even being in the White House."
On the first day of the ceasefire—which the United States, Qatar, and Egypt jointly brokered—Hamas would release three hostages and another four within a week. After that period, Hamas would free three hostages every seven days, beginning with those who are still alive.
Amid the ceasefire period, Israel and the United States would surge humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and begin some reconstruction projects.
During the second phase, male hostages would be freed in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. In the third phase, portions of which are still being ironed out, Israel and Hamas would exchange the bodies of deceased hostages and war prisoners.
In the build up to the ceasefire, reports emerged that Hamas had made unreasonable, last-minute demands regarding Israel's presence along the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that Hamas "folded" on those demands but added that "several items in the framework have yet to be finalized."
Shortly thereafter, President Joe Biden delivered brief remarks touting the deal, which he said mirrored the one he proposed in May that Hamas did not agree to. He said he told his "team to coordinate closely" with the incoming Trump administration "to make sure we're all speaking with the same voice." When a reporter asked whether Biden or Trump deserve credit for the deal, Biden responded, "Is that a joke?"
During a Monday speech at the State Department, President Joe Biden said his administration was close to securing a deal that has eluded U.S. negotiators for months, mainly due to Hamas’s intransigence. Still, Biden failed to credit Trump with moving the needle—even amid reports that Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, helped convince Netanyahu to accept the revamped ceasefire deal.
"We are on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition," Biden said in his final foreign policy address. "We’re working hard to close this. The deal we’ve structured will free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who have suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started."
The Palestinians, Biden added, have "been through hell" during more than a year of war that followed Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree. "So many communities have been destroyed," the president said. "The Palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own future. Israel deserves peace and real security. The hostages and their families deserve to be reunited."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also teased the deal in an interview with MSNBC.
"The ball is in Hamas’s court, but it’s very close, and we are very hopeful that we get it over the finish line finally after all this time," Blinken said on Monday, confirming some fresh details about the plan.
In the deal’s first six weeks, "the conflict stops, Israel pulls back its forces, a lot of hostages come out, some prisoners are released by Israel, we surge humanitarian assistance, and we also use that time to try to finalize an agreement on an enduring ceasefire," Blinken said.
One day later, on Tuesday, Blinken said the sides are also working through a "detailed post-conflict plan that would allow Israel to fully withdraw from Gaza, prevent Hamas from filling back in, and provide for Gaza’s governance, security and reconstruction."
"We will hand off that plan to the Trump administration to carry forward," Blinken said.
Update 2:15 p.m.: This piece has been updated to reflect comments from President Joe Biden.