After 15 months of horrendous fighting in the Gaza strip, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement just days before the second Trump administration. The cease fire began on Sunday, Jan. 20 and phase one is projected to last six weeks. The pause in fighting is meant to allow Palestinians to return to their homes in Gaza and for humanitarian aid to be flooded into the region.

The deal approves 600 daily lorries of aid and fuel to be allowed into the region. This is much-needed relief compared to the 90 trucks a day that were being attempted before the deal took place. Many will be delivered directly into northern Gaza, where the most destruction took place. Estimates say 60% – 70% of the area has been destroyed. 

Thousands of Palestinians are marching on foot back to their homes, many to destroyed houses and communities. Doctors Without Borders returned to the city of rafah in Southern Gaza say the destruction will take years to repair. 

Hostages are actively being swapped between Israel and Hamas, the first ones being three female hostages released by Hamas, and around 95 palestinian prisoners, made up of mainly women and teenagers. By the end of phase one, the Associated Press (AP) reports, “Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel.” 

These hostage-swaps are being facilitated by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). 

Phase two negotiations are set to open during the third week of the cease-fire which is quickly approaching. Currently, the outline says, “all remaining hostages in Gaza, both alive and dead, are to be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the strip,” as reported by the AP.

The war, which originally broke out over attacks that took place on Oct. 7, 2023 in Israel, is not over completely and the agreement to cease fighting hangs loosely by a thread. The day before the ceasefire was set to take effect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We must protect our ability to return to the fighting if we need,” making no promises to bring an end to the war. 

Despite the ceasefire, blows are still being traded in isolated events by both sides. On Jan. 27, Al-Jazeera reported, “The armed wind of Palestinian Islamic Jihad says its Tulkarem Battalion in the [Israeli-]occupied West bank detonated a ground explosive device, targeting an Israeli D9 military bulldozer.”

Convicted felon Donald Trump, serving as U.S. president, stated over the weekend that he thinks Arab neighbors Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinian refugees, allowing Gaza to be “cleared out.” What that actually means, is currently unclear. 

Egypt and Jordan, America’s closest Arab allies, pushed back while the Palestinian president said they would not accept being pushed out of their land and into another’s territory. Jordan’s foreign minister said, “Jordan is for Jordanians, and Palestine is for Palestinians and we will not accept anyone being pushed here.” 

Trump did credit his election win from last November as the driving cause in reaching a ceasefire agreement, despite it happening days before he came to power. 

An earlier ceasefire deal, settled on last November, between Israel and Lebanon-backed Hezbollah was scheduled to reach its end this past weekend, with both sides set to withdraw their troops, but that did not happen as it was meant to. The hope is an extension to the ceasefire amongst tension, or fighting would once again break out. 

The original Oct. 7 attacks led to the deaths of 1,200 people and 251 were taken as hostages into Gaza. Since then, over 47,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military force.