Israel and Hamas agree Gaza ceasefire deal
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After 15 months of war, Hamas and Israel have agreed a ceasefire agreement which will come into force on the 19th January. The deal will enter a 42-day first phase, after which the second phase of the ceasefire and further release of hostages will need to be agreed. We speak to the brother-in-law of one the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, an Israeli Member of the Knesset who is opposed to the deal, a Palestinian journalist living in Gaza and a representative of UNRWA, the main United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. Also in the programme: how wildfires in LA have destroyed thousands of homes in working class neighbourhoods. Photo: Palestinian supporters celebrate news of a ceasefire with Israel, in Berlin, Germany, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Nadja Wohlleben
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to live from the BBC World Service Studios in London. |
| 0:09.4 | I'm Tim Franks. And it was just over two hours ago that we got confirmation that a ceasefire has at last been agreed between Hamas and Israel. |
| 0:21.1 | A ceasefire had to come into effect for Gaza on Sunday. |
| 0:26.0 | The announcement was made in Doha, the capital of Qatar, |
| 0:29.4 | which has been the location for these protracted negotiations. |
| 0:32.5 | It was made by the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Afani. |
| 0:38.0 | It gives us great pleasure in Qatar, Egypt and the United States to announce the success |
| 0:45.7 | of the joint mediation efforts and the fact that the two belligerents in the Gaza Strip |
| 0:51.7 | have reached a deal on the prisoner and the hostage swap |
| 0:55.3 | and announce a ceasefire in the hopes of reaching a permanent ceasefire between the two sides, |
| 1:01.2 | as well as allowing the access of large quantities of relief aid to the Palestinian brothers and the Gaza Strip. |
| 1:08.4 | Well, there will be stages to this deal, and we will bring you all |
| 1:11.7 | the details that we have in a moment of the, well, some of what the Qatari Prime Minister was talking |
| 1:16.3 | about there, the phased release of Israeli hostages, the release of Palestinian prisoners, an influx |
| 1:20.9 | of aid, and a pullback of Israeli troops, and we'll get reaction from Israel, from Gaza, from the |
| 1:27.4 | main UN relief agency and from the |
| 1:29.0 | US. But among those keen to perform a rapid victory lap just after the announcement from the |
| 1:34.2 | Qatari Prime Minister was the man who in five days will no longer be president, Joe Biden. |
| 1:40.2 | There was no other way for this war to end than with a hostage deal. |
| 1:45.3 | And I'm deeply satisfied. |
| 1:47.6 | This day has come, finally come, for the sake of the people of Israel |
| 1:51.2 | and the families waiting in agony. |
... |
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