Hamas Top Chief Declares End Of War And Start Of Permanent Ceasefire

Hamas top chief Khalil Al Hayya (AFP)

Hamas’s chief negotiator on Thursday announced an end to the war and the beginning of a permanent ceasefire.

“Today we announce that the agreement has been reached to end the war and aggression against our people and begin implementing a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of the occupation forces,” Khalil Al Hayya said in a televised speech Thursday.

CNN quoted the chief as saying that 250 Palestinians who were sentenced to life imprisonment will be released as part of the deal, in addition to 1,700 prisoners from Gaza who were arrested after October 7.

“The agreement includes opening Rafah crossing in both directions. The agreement will see the release by Israel of all jailed Palestinian women and children,” he said. “We received guarantees from the mediators and the Americans that the war has ended indefinitely.”

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed to a ceasefire deal to free hostages held in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, as part of the first phase of a “peace deal” brokered by US President Donald Trump.

Hamas is expected to release the 20 living hostages together, 72 hours after the ceasefire begins.

American envoy Steve Witkoff said Trump will travel to Egypt next week after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi extended an invitation to attend celebrations over the Gaza ceasefire deal. “The President is really excited to come to Egypt, and that is the plan, that he comes next week,” Witkoff said in a meeting with Sisi, a video of which was released by the Egyptian presidency. The first phase of the deal was thrashed out in indirect negotiations behind closed doors in a conference centre in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town on the Red Sea.

The deal will allow a surge of aid into Gaza, where the UN has declared famine. A Hamas source said the deal also provides for the “return of displaced persons from the south of the Gaza Strip to Gaza (City) and the north immediately”. The source added that a daily minimum of 400 trucks of aid will enter the Gaza Strip for the first five days of the ceasefire, to be increased in following days. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees welcomed the deal as a “huge relief”, and said it was ready to flood Gaza with desperately needed food.