Negotiators agreed to a cease-fire deal in Gaza
Negotiators from Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 42-day cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, President Biden and other leaders said yesterday, raising hopes that a 15-month war that killed at least 45,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of the enclave could soon come to an end. The truce is set to take effect on Sunday, the Qatari prime minister said. Read the latest.
The agreement needs to be formally ratified by the Israeli cabinet and the government, and both sides were still working on concluding some of the logistical matters, according to officials from Israel and Qatar. A vote in Israel is expected this morning. Here’s what we know about the deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a brief statement at midnight local time reiterating that he would make a full statement only after the final details of the agreement were settled. He has spoken with Biden and with President-elect Donald Trump, his office said. Hamas confirmed the cease-fire deal, calling it an “achievement for our people.”
What this means for Gaza: In the first phase of the cease-fire, Israeli forces would withdraw to the east, away from populated areas. Israel must free several Palestinian prisoners for each hostage released, including some serving life sentences, and allow the entry of 600 trucks carrying humanitarian relief daily, according to a copy of the agreement.
What this means for Israel: A total of 33 hostages would be released over the course of the 42 days. They include women and children, men over age 50 and sick or wounded people. It’s still unclear how many of the 33 are alive. About 100 hostages are thought to still be in Gaza, although the Israeli authorities believe around 35 of them are dead.
Response: Many Gazans reacted with hope tempered by sadness, exhaustion and fear. In Israel, supporters of the deal celebrated the new hope for the return of hostages but also expressed sorrow that a truce would most likely only pause the conflict.
In Gaza: The Gazan Civil Defense Rescue and Emergency Service said last night that the Israeli military was “escalating its aggression against civilians,” even with a cease-fire deal in sight. “At this moment, a residential block consisting of multiple houses” north of Gaza City was “being bombed,” it said.
Poland’s leader commented on a Russian plot
Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, in a meeting yesterday with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, appeared to confirm the conclusions of Western intelligence officials who had warned of a Russian plot to blow up cargo aircraft over Western countries.
“I can only confirm that Russia planned acts of air terror, not just against Poland but against airlines across the globe,” Tusk said. He did not elaborate, and it was unclear whether officials believed that Moscow was continuing to actively plan such attacks.
Officials first became aware of the plot over the summer, when incendiary devices placed at shipping hubs in Britain and Germany ignited fires that caused minimal damage. Western officials said in November that the fires had been part of a test of security measures carried out by Russia’s military intelligence service. The ultimate goal of the plot was not known.
Context: While the Kremlin has denied that its agents engage in sabotage, Western officials say Moscow has ordered its intelligence services to find ways to bring the war in Ukraine, soon to enter its fourth year, to Europe and the U.S.
Ukraine: Students in a summer acting course in Kyiv performed a play set in America, called “It’s okay!” It gave them hope that their lives would be OK, too.
South Korea’s president was detained
President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea yesterday became the first sitting president in the nation’s history to be detained in a criminal investigation.
Investigators showed up with 1,000 police officers to take Yoon into custody after his bodyguards rebuffed an attempt to detain him last week. The detention was the latest twist in the weeks of political turmoil that have followed Yoon’s brief declaration of martial law last month and subsequent impeachment.
What’s next: Investigators have 48 hours to interrogate Yoon, after which they can decide to formally arrest him. If he is arrested, they must indict him within 20 days. Separately, the Constitutional Court began deliberating whether he should be removed from office.
A quiet house in southern Poland was “a great place to raise children,” its most recent resident said. Decades earlier, that same house was the home of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the death camp Auschwitz, and unspeakable horrors took place on the other side of its garden wall.
The house, the subject of the Oscar-winning movie “The Zone of Interest,” will soon welcome visitors as part of commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Army’s liberation of the camp.
Lives lived: Martin Karplus, a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical chemist who used computers to model how complex systems change during chemical reactions, died last month at 94.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
ARTS AND IDEAS
‘Clothes matter’
The writer Gay Talese keeps notes on everything. In “A Town Without Time,” a new collection of his New York writings, the writer notices it all — chestnut vendors, pigeons, doormen, copy boys, ants. And, of course, clothes.
“When I was on The New York Times in 1953 as a copy boy, men still wore suits and jackets and ties and sometimes fedoras,” Talese, 92, said, adding: “Men don’t dress up in New York anymore. You go to a good restaurant and the women look great. The men dress terribly.”
Read our interview with him.
