Gaza: The hostages are free – what happens now?

It was a historic Monday: The 20 hostages who were still alive returned home to Israel. Hamas held them in Gaza for 378 days, more than two years. The terrorist organization also handed over the remains of some hostages. In return, Israel began releasing around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. 250 of them were originally sentenced to life imprisonment.

The agreed ceasefire in Gaza also holds. The peace plan that US President Donald Trump negotiated with Israel and the Palestinians appears to be working – so far. What’s next in the struggle for long-term peace? The most important questions and answers.

Important steps have already been taken with the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of the hostages by Hamas. The first phase of the peace plan, which Israel and Hamas agreed to, has now been completed. Donald Trump considers the Gaza war to be over and proclaimed “the end of a time of terror and death” in his speech to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz also declared: “The war in Gaza is over.” An international summit also took place in Egypt with around 20 heads of state and government, including Merz.

The next few weeks and months will be about getting out of the current situation Truce to make a real peace. After all the wars and conflicts in the Middle East, there is great skepticism as to whether this will succeed. Although Israel has stopped its attacks as agreed, the peace in the Gaza Strip – despite all the joy about the progress – still appears fragile. There are several signs of this.

Both Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas representatives stayed away from the peace summit in Egypt. Hamas has already stated: “The Palestinian people will not rest until the last prisoner is freed from the prisons of the new Nazis and the occupation is removed from our land and our holy places.” On the other hand, Netanyahu and his right-wing extremist government partners are pursuing the goal of completely destroying the Islamist organization.

According to Donald Trump, the second phase of peace negotiations has now begun. It is about the conditions under which long-term peace can be achieved in the region. Israel has withdrawn its soldiers to an agreed line in Gaza, but will remain in the area for now. The subject of the negotiations will be to bring an international stabilization force into the Gaza Strip and to install an interim administration without Hamas’ participation.

For Trump, an important prerequisite for this is the disarmament of the terrorist organization. This is intended to prevent renewed acts of violence such as the massacre on October 7, 2023. However, Hamas has already clearly rejected this demand. Senior official Hossam Badran told AFP the second phase of the plan “involves many complexities and difficulties.” So lengthy negotiations are looming.

After the ceasefire began on Friday, the first aid deliveries to the population of Gaza began. That was also part of the 20-point plan. The deliveries are intended to gradually improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the area. Thousands of people returned after the ceasefire came into force. However, almost 80 percent of the buildings were damaged or destroyed by the war.

Germany wants to invite people to a reconstruction conference together with Egypt. The federal government has already announced that it will initially provide 29 million euros for emergency humanitarian aid. According to Development Minister Alabali Radovan, the ceasefire also means that “a three-digit million contribution” that was frozen after the Hamas attack is available again.

Sources: , , , news agencies DPA and AFP