Mediators herald Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal. Israel says final details are in flux

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Israel and Hamas have agreed to pause the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, mediators announced Wednesday, raising the possibility of winding down the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies.

The three-phase ceasefire deal promises the release of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and to allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Gaza to return to what remains of their homes. It would also flood desperately needed humanitarian aid into the territory ravaged by 15 months of war, mediators said.

The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said the ceasefire would go into effect Sunday and that its success would depend on Israel and Hamas "acting in good faith in order to ensure that this agreement does not collapse.” He spoke in the Qatari capital of Doha, the site of weeks of painstaking negotiations.

U.S. President Joe Biden touted the deal from Washington, saying the ceasefire would stay in place as long as Israel and Hamas remain at the negotiating table over a long-term truce. Biden credited months of “dogged and painstaking American diplomacy” for landing the deal, noting that his administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s team had been “speaking as one” in the latest negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Wednesday that the ceasefire agreement with Hamas was still not complete and final details were being worked out.

An Israeli official familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity said those details center on confirming the list of Palestinian prisoners to be freed. Any agreement must be approved by Netanyahu’s Cabinet.

Netanyahu thanked Trump and Biden for “advancing” the ceasefire agreement, but did not explicitly say whether he has accepted it, saying he would issue a formal response only “after the final details of the agreement, which are currently being worked on, are completed.”

His measured reaction may reflect domestic politics. Netanyahu's governing coalition depends on the support of two hard-line factions whose leaders have threatened to leave the government over the planned release of Palestinian prisoners. Although opposition leaders have vowed to support the ceasefire deal, the loss of his hard-line allies could lead to the collapse of the coalition and trigger early elections.

Early Thursday morning, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement accusing Hamas of backtracking on an earlier understanding that he said would give Israel a veto over which prisoners accused of murder would be released. Netanyahu said he told the negotiators to stand firm on the earlier agreement.

Hamas did not immediately respond.

Earlier, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on Netanyahu’s government to approve the ceasefire in a nationally televised speech. Hamas said in a statement the ceasefire was “the result of the legendary resilience of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip.”

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. are to meet in Cairo on Thursday for talks on implementing the deal, according to a senior U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Once the first phase of the deal takes effect, it is expected to deliver an initial six-week halt to fighting along with the opening of negotiations on ending the war altogether.

Over those six weeks, 33 of the nearly 100 hostages are to be reunited with their loved ones after months in captivity with no contact with the outside world, though it’s unclear if all are alive.

It remained unclear exactly when and how many displaced Palestinians would be able to return to their homes, and whether the agreement would lead to a complete end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza — key Hamas demands for releasing the remaining captives.

Many longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction after a brutal conflict that has destabilized the broader Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.

Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, which killed some 1,200 in Israel and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a fierce offensive that has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed.

More than 100 hostages were freed from Gaza in a weeklong truce in November 2023.

The U.S., along with Egypt and Qatar, have brokered months of indirect talks between the bitter enemies that finally culminated in this latest deal. It comes after Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in November, after more than a year of conflict linked to the war in Gaza.

U.N. and international relief organizations estimate some 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times. They say tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed and hospitals are barely functioning. Experts have warned that famine may be underway in northern Gaza.

Abed Radwan, a Palestinian father of three, called the ceasefire deal "the best day in my life and the life of the Gaza people. ... Thank God. Thank God.”

Radwan, who has been displaced from the town of Beit Lahiya for over a year and has been sheltering in Gaza City, said he hopes to return and to rebuild his home. As he spoke to AP by phone, his voice was overshadowed by the celebrations of fellow Gazans.

“People are crying here. They don’t believe it’s true," he said.

In Israel, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling for a deal to be completed. Many held posters of hostages, others hoisted candles in the air.

As the deal was announced, some people were unaware it had gone through. Sharone Lifschitz, whose father Oded is being held in Gaza, told the AP by phone she was stunned and grateful but won’t believe it until she sees all the hostages come home.

“I’m so desperate to see them, if by some miracle my father has survived,” she said.

The Hostage Families Forum, which has long pressed Israeli leaders to make a deal that would bring the captives home, said it welcomed Wednesday's announcement with joy and relief.

“After 460 days of our family members being held in Hamas tunnels, we are closer than ever to reuniting with our loved ones,” it said in a statement.

Biden, who has provided crucial military aid to Israel but expressed exasperation over civilian deaths in Gaza, announced the outline of the three-phase ceasefire agreement on May 31. The agreement eventually agreed to followed that framework.

He said the first phase would last for six weeks and include a “full and complete ceasefire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older adults and wounded people, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Humanitarian assistance would surge, with hundreds of trucks entering Gaza each day.

The second and most difficult phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. The third phase calls for the start of major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from devastation caused by the war.

Hamas had been demanding assurances of a permanent end to the war and complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has repeatedly said it would not halt the war until it destroys Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.

With Biden’s days in office numbered and Trump set to take over, both sides had been under pressure to agree to a deal.

Trump celebrated the agreement, posting on his Truth Social social media platform: “WE HAVE A DEAL FOR THE HOSTAGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY. THANK YOU!”

Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said Biden deserves praise for continuing to push the talks. But Trump’s threats to Hamas and his efforts to “cajole” Netanyahu deserve credit as well.

“The ironic reality is that at a time of heightened partisanship even over foreign policy, the deal represents how much more powerful and influential U.S. foreign policy can be when it’s bipartisan,” Panikoff said.

Hezbollah’s acceptance of a ceasefire in Lebanon after it had suffered heavy blows, and the overthrow of President Bashar Assad in Syria, were both major setbacks for Iran and its allies across the region, including Hamas, which was left increasingly isolated.

Israel has come under heavy international criticism, including from its closest ally, the United States, over the civilian toll in Gaza. Israel says it has killed around 17,000 militants — though it has not provided evidence to support the claim. It also blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, accusing it of using schools, hospitals and residential areas for military purposes.

The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations brought by South Africa that Israel has committed genocide. The International Criminal Court, a separate body also based in The Hague, has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and a Hamas commander for war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the war.

Israel and the United States have condemned the actions taken by both courts.

Netanyahu also faced great domestic pressure to bring home the hostages. Their families have become a powerful lobbying group with wide public support backed by months of mass protests urging the government to reach a deal with Hamas.

Israeli authorities have already concluded that more than a third of the roughly 100 remaining people held captive are dead, and there are fears that others are no longer alive. A series of videos released by Hamas showing surviving hostages in distress, combined with news that a growing number of abducted Israelis have died, put added pressure on the Israeli leader.

Hamas, a militant group that does not accept Israel’s existence, has come under overwhelming pressure from Israeli military operations, including the invasion of Gaza’s largest cities and towns and the takeover of the border between Gaza and Egypt. Its top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, who was believed to have helped mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, have been killed.

But its fighters have regrouped in some of the hardest-hit areas after the withdrawal of Israeli forces, raising the prospect of a prolonged insurgency if the war continues.

Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are destroyed. But it has never been clear what that would entail or if it’s even possible, given the group’s deep roots in Palestinian society, its presence in Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, and its exiled leadership.

Both sides still face many difficult and unanswered questions.

As the war winds down, Netanyahu will face growing calls for postwar investigations that could find him at least partially responsible for the security failures of Oct. 7 — the worst in Israel’s history. His far-right governing partners, who opposed a ceasefire deal, could also bring down the coalition and push the country into early elections.

There is still no plan for who will govern Gaza after the war. Israel has said it will work with local Palestinians not affiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. But it's unclear if such partners exist, and Hamas has threatened anyone who cooperates with Israeli forces.

The United States has tried to advance sweeping postwar plans for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza with Arab and international assistance. As part of those plans, the U.S. hopes Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in return for U.S. security guarantees and aid in setting up a civilian nuclear program.

But those plans depend on credible progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu and much of Israel’s political class oppose. Netanyahu has said Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza as well as the occupied West Bank, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their future state.

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Magdy reported from Cairo. Fatma Khaled in Cairo, Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller, Matthew Lee and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, contributed.

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

President Joe Biden, center, with Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, right, speaks in the Cross Hall of the White House on the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages after more than 15 months of war, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians celebrate the imminent announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.(AP Photo/(AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A boy looks at the bodies of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as they are brought for burial at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

FILE - Destroyed buildings are seen through the window of an airplane from the U.S. Air Force overflying the Gaza Strip, on March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)

FILE - Relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and their supporters protest outside of the hotel where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is staying during a visit with Israeli leadership in Tel Aviv, on Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

FILE - Palestinian children play next to buildings destroyed by Israeli army strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE - Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE - Demonstrators wave flags and signs during a protest demanding a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

FILE - A Palestinian man mourns a relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah on Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

FILE - People visit the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, on the one-year anniversary of the attack near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, on Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

FILE - Rockets fired from Gaza and intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system over Israeli skies are seen from Gaza City, on May 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)

Violent storms cut through a wide swath of the South and Midwest, spawning tornadoes and killing at least three people, knocking down power lines and trees and ripping roofs off homes.

Dozens of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued Wednesday in parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Mississippi as storms hit those and other states in the evening. Forecasters attributed the violent weather to daytime heating combining with an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming into the nation’s midsection from the Gulf.

Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri Highway Patrol said at least one person was killed in southeast Missouri, KFVS-TV reported, while part of a warehouse collapsed in a suburb of Indianapolis, temporarily trapping at least one person inside. In northeast Arkansas a rare tornado emergency was issued as debris flew thousands of feet in the air.

The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed two weather-related fatalities, one in McNairy County and the other in Obion County, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency announced early Thursday.

The coming days were also forecast to bring the risk of potentially deadly flash flooding to the South and Midwest as severe thunderstorms blowing eastward become supercharged. The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” each day through Saturday, the National Weather Service said.

With more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain possible over the next four days, the prolonged deluge “is an event that happens once in a generation to once in a lifetime,” the weather service said. “Historic rainfall totals and impacts are possible.”

More than 90 million people were at some risk of severe weather in a huge part of the nation stretching from Texas to Minnesota and Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center.

A tornado emergency — the weather service's highest alert — was briefly declared around Blytheville, Arkansas, on Wednesday evening, with debris lofted at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers), according to Chelly Amin, a meteorologist with the service.

“It's definitely going to be a really horrible situation here come sunrise in the morning in those areas,” Amin said.

A tornado was also reported on the ground near Harrisburg, Arkansas, in the evening.

The Arkansas Division of Emergency Management reported that there was damage in 22 counties due to tornadoes, wind gusts, hail and flash flooding. At least four people were injured, but there were no reports of fatalities as of Wednesday evening.

In Kentucky, a tornado touched down Wednesday night around Jeffersontown, a suburb of Louisville, passing the Interstate 64 and Interstate 265 interchange, according to the weather service.

Four people were injured in Kentucky when a church was hit by debris from a suspected tornado, according to Ballard County Emergency Management. One person was in critical condition, while the others have non-life-threatening injuries.

In Brownsburg, Indiana, where part of a warehouse collapsed, the police department told people to not travel through the city. Five semitrucks were blown over on Interstate 65 near Lowell, Indiana, state police reported.

Indianapolis Public Schools announced a remote learning day Thursday due to power outages at multiple buildings. At least 10 districts in Indiana have canceled or delayed in-person classes Thursday.

The town of Delta, in southern Missouri, which has under 400 people, had downed powerlines and trees, and damaged buildings. Road entrances to the town were blocked off. School was canceled for the rest of the week as the Red Cross and an electric utility took over a parking lot at the high school.

“There is too much damage in town,” Superintendent David Heeb posted online. “We need to give our families a chance to regroup and take care of the things they need to focus on right now.”

In Pilot Grove, Missouri, several structures were damaged, cars flipped over and power poles were snapped, the state emergency management agency said. Minor injuries were reported, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Authorities in eastern Missouri were trying to determine whether it was a tornado that damaged buildings, overturned vehicles and tore down utility poles, tree limbs and business signs in the morning in and around the city of Nevada.

Another tornado touched down in the northeastern Oklahoma city of Owasso on Wednesday, according to the weather service. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but the twister heavily damaged the roofs of homes and knocked down power lines, trees, fences and sheds.

Power was knocked out to more than 330,000 customers in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee as of Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

A line of thunderstorms dropped heavy rain through parts of Indiana on Wednesday night. At least one street was flooded in Indianapolis, with water nearly reaching the windows of several cars, according to the city's metropolitan police department. No one was in the vehicles.

Additional rounds of heavy rain were expected in parts of Texas, the lower Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley from midweek through Saturday. Forecasters warned that they could track over the same areas repeatedly, producing dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping cars away.

Middle Tennessee was looking at severe storms followed by four days of heavy rains as the front stalls out and sticks around through the weekend, according to NWS meteorologist Mark Rose.

“I don’t recall ever seeing one like this, and I’ve been here 30 years,” Rose said. “It’s not moving.”

Rain totaling up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) was forecast over the next seven days in northeastern Arkansas, the southeast corner of Missouri, western Kentucky and southern parts of Illinois and Indiana, the weather service warned, with some areas in Kentucky and Indiana at an especially high risk for flooding.

Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Isabella O'Malley in Philadelphia; and Ed White in Detroit.

Storm damage from severe weather on Sunday at a farm along 84th Street near Hanna Lake Avenue in Gaines Twp., Mich. on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

A barn that collapsed from Sunday's severe storm along 92nd Street SE in Gaines Twp., Mich., on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

Gary Deripaska, left, cleans up storm damage at his home off 96th Street North just west of Garnett Road, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

A toppled tree with its roots showing on Woodworth Street in Linden, Mich., on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)

An aerial image of a barn that collapsed after a severe storm hit Sunday along 92nd Street SE in Gaines Twp., Mich., on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

An early morning severe storm damaged homes, destroying the roofs and knocked down power lines, trees, and fences off 96th Street North near Garnett Road, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

A tree fell and knocked down power lines and blocked a street in a residential neighborhood during storms on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Lightning strikes as storms move through the area Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Ashland City, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Severe storm damage is shown off 96th Street North between Garnett Road and Mingo Road Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

Ryland Mosley, 18, who was on the 2nd story of his home when the storm passed, stands outside of it observing the damage, Wednesday, April 2, 2025 in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)