Hamas and Israel reached a cease-fire agreement
Negotiators from Israel and Hamas agreed yesterday to a 42-day cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, President Biden and other officials announced. The deal would take effect on Sunday, the Qatari prime minister said. Officials in Israel and Qatar said both sides were still hammering out the final details, and Israel’s cabinet and government would still need to ratify it. Here’s the latest.
The agreement raised hopes that there could soon be an end to more than a year of war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. About 100 hostages are thought to still be in Gaza, although the Israeli authorities believe around 35 of them are dead.
Hamas confirmed the cease-fire deal in a statement on Telegram, and hailed Gazans’ “legendary resilience” in the face of the war.
Biden said he was “confident” that the deal would hold, and that U.S. hostages would be released in the first phase. The cease-fire deal is broadly similar to a three-phase framework publicized by the U.S. in May, according to officials.
Details: The first phase would last six weeks. Israeli forces would withdraw to the east, away from populated areas, and some 33 hostages would be released over the course of 42 days, the Qatari prime minister said. Biden said that in addition to the releases, Palestinians would be able to return to their homes and would have access to a surge of humanitarian supplies.
U.S. Senate confirmation hearings pressed on
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, appeared before the Senate yesterday. He is widely expected to be easily confirmed next month.
He was two hours into his hearing when it was announced that Israel and Hamas had reached terms for a temporary cease-fire. In the past, he has defended Israel’s conduct in the war. In the hearing, he argued that Ukraine must make peace with Russia and said that “there will have to be concessions made” by both parties. He said he still supported NATO, but shared Trump’s view that Europe should spend more on its collective defense.
Rubio also discussed China, which he warned was aiming to overtake the U.S. as the world’s pre-eminent power.
Other hearings: Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick to run the Justice Department, refused to explicitly say she would defy White House pressure in the role — or admit that Trump lost the 2020 election. Bondi served on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020.
White House: President Biden is making his final address to the nation as president, putting a capstone on his five-decade political career.
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. The detention ended a weekslong political turmoil that saw Yoon be impeached for briefly declaring martial law last month. Investigators showed up with 1,000 police officers to take Yoon into custody, after his bodyguards rebuffed an attempt to detain him last week.
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.
Analysis: My colleague Choe Sang-Hun, The Times’s Seoul bureau chief, explains what led up to yesterday’s detention and what it could mean for the future.
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