This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Paul Moss, and in this special edition recorded on Wednesday the 15th of January,

a ceasefire deal in Gaza is announced, an agreement to end 15 months of war.

It's due to start on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden confirmed the deal,

which involves a full and complete withdrawal

of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the hostages held by Hamas. We'll have the latest

from our correspondence in Jerusalem and Washington. It was the Prime Minister of Qatar who announced details of the deal.

Qatar has been hosting and mediating talks between the two sides.

This is what Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman bin Yassim Afani had to say at a news conference in Doha.

We've been raising the question of the right moment for the entire period since the collapse of the

first phase. But we have seen a momentum that started to build in the last month and we kept

pushing for that, working together very closely with our partners. And I can say that what we

have seen from the U.S. in the past few days, seeing a collaboration

transcending both the administration was a clear demonstration for the commitment of the U.S. to reach

to that deal.

And I really would like to thank both the envoys who are here with us in the last couple of days,

and they played a vital role in reaching to this moment.

And, of course, for us and Egypt, this is something that we are a stakeholder in that conflict,

that we have to do it and we have to help and support,

but we have seen the steps that's been taken recently from the US has yielded to this moment.

Qatar's Prime Minister. What's striking about the ceasefire deal is that it's really just a more

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