Further details of the agreement between Israel and Hamas to permanently halt fighting in Gaza have been revealed. The deal, which Israel’s cabinet is expected to ratify within hours, lays out a precise, staged process meant to bring an end to active fighting while returning Israeli captives home.

Under the agreement, Hamas will have 72 hours to release all remaining Israeli hostages once the ceasefire takes effect. Only after that period will Israel begin releasing Palestinian prisoners.

If all hostages are not returned alive — and if some are confirmed to have been killed in Gaza — a separate, classified Israeli response plan will be enacted. That contingency, to be presented to the cabinet, addresses scenarios in which Hamas cannot locate the bodies of all deceased hostages.

The agreement calls for the release of 250 Palestinian security prisoners serving life sentences. In addition, Israel will free roughly 1,700 Gazans who were detained after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks but were not involved in the assault. Those individuals will either be repatriated to Gaza or deported abroad.

A further 22 minors, none of whom took part in the October 7 attacks, will also be released under the deal.

Israel will additionally return the bodies of about 360 Palestinian terrorists killed in the fighting to Hamas custody.

The hostage release will begin once the IDF withdraws to newly designated lines within Gaza — a process expected to occur within 24 hours of the cabinet’s approval of the deal. The hostages are to be freed in batches over the 72-hour period, with international monitors expected to oversee compliance.

While the agreement represents the most comprehensive framework reached since the start of the war, Israeli officials caution that the plan’s success depends on Hamas’s ability to produce all hostages, living and deceased. Should the group fail to meet its obligations, Israel’s security cabinet will consider activating the classified contingency plan.

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