Paul Wood: Foreign Affairs Correspondent on the ceasefire reached between Israel and Hamas

Celebrations in the streets of Israel and Gaza, with reports of ceasefire being reached. 

More than 46-thousand people have been killed in the region and nearly two million people have been displaced since the conflict began in October. 

BBC reports the first phase of the deal will see a six-week ceasefire and 33 of the hostages held by Hamas exchanged for hundreds Palestinian prisoners. 

Foreign Affairs Correspondent Paul Wood told Tim Beveridge it's essentially the same deal that's been offered since May. 

He says both sides are to blame to some extent for extending the deal, but it was largely Israel's Prime Minister prioritising destroying Hamas over getting the hostages home. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Look, we've had reports of a ceasefi deal that has
been finally reached in Gaza. More than forty six thousand
people are being killed in the region and nearly two
million people displaced since the conflict began fifteen months ago.
We still don't have the exact details on what the
deal is, but reports suggest that during the first six
weeks of the cease fire, thirty three of the hostages
still held by Hamas will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners

(00:40):
in Israeli jails. Israeli forces will pull back from populated
areas of Gaza, and displaced Palestinians will be allowed to
begin returning to their homes. Paul wood is He's a
former BBC correspondent in Israel, now foreign fierce columnist for
The Spectator and Paul, good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
So we've finally got something. What do you make of
it so far?

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, they're agreed in principle. These Radi Prime to Benjamin Netanyah,
who says there are still some technical details to thrash out,
but I think nobody's in any doubt now that this
will go ahead, And the reason for being cautious up
until now is that this deal has been promoted again
and again by President Biden among others, as just about
to be done, and then it falls apart. This is

(01:27):
substantially the same deal that Benjamin Netsan Yahoo turned down
last May. That's eight months ago. Both sides are to
blame to some extent, but I think largely this is
mister Netanyahu who has decided you can call it States
and the Ship, or you can call it something else,
but decided to put the destruction of Hamas first and

(01:48):
getting the hostages home second, a decision which naturally is
extremely controversial in Israel. But finally I think he has
been pressurized by Donald Trump, the US president elect, and
the deal is done.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I was actually going to ask you, DoD Trump's words
have any effect, because he said all hell is going
to break loose? Does that have any effect on the
other side?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, that comment was in reference to Hamas. That was
a warning to Hamas, who also have turned down this
deal at various stages. But I think the real moment
of change came when Steve Whitcoff who's Trump's new special
envoy for the Middle East. And like mister Trump, he's
a real estate billionaire from New York who goes way

(02:30):
way back with Trump. They're golf partners. He sent Whitcoff
to bang heads together essentially and read the riot act
of mister nesson Yahu. And certainly nobody in the Israeli
media is in any doubt this was Trump pressurizing Nessonjaho
that made the difference.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, what do we have? We learned much more about
what's in the deal. A lot of people have been
cynical about just thirty three hostages being released.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
We haven't seen a text. What we've got is leaks.
But this appears to be, as I say, substantially the
same deal that first came up in May, for a
staged release of hostages, the least controversial ones first if
you like women principally, then male combatants male soldiers after that,
and then remains after that. There are ninety eight I

(03:16):
think Israeli's still captive or missing, but some of those
have been killed, and we are talking about the return
of remains at the same time, a ceasefire. These relies
to pull back. We don't know if that's pulling back
and they're allowed to come five hundred meters back into
Gaza or fifteen hundred meters back into Gaza. These are

(03:36):
crucial details. And there's also a question about what happens
to the so called Philadelphia Corridor, that's the border between
Gaza and Egypt. To what extent Israel will be allowed
to go back in there. And I suspect I don't know,
but I suspect that it wasn't just a question of
mister Trump conveying threats to Benjamin Nestania, who there were
problems too, and the promise would be if there's a threat,

(03:57):
if you need to go back into Gaza, then you
have the power to do that. Exactly the same was
agreed with the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbola in Lebanon.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Outside of those thirty three hostages, How confident can we
be that much more remain alive.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
I think we simply don't know. And one of the
reasons we don't know is that it's not just Hamas
Islamic Jaad, another Palestinian armed group have hostages and apparently
have been party to these talks. I've even seen suggestions
in earlier stage that independent groups have them am or
sort of criminal groups. I don't know whether that is true,
but we'll have to wait and see. And of course

(04:36):
this could break down at any moment. It's taking place
very gradually and there's a lot of potential for things
to go wrong.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah. Well, it's not going to last anyway, is it.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, Hamas. It's very interesting that as this steal is
being finalized, a US intelligence report came out and then
Anthony Blink and the US Sector State began talking about
It's saying Hamas has managed to recruit the equivalent number
of fighters to the number that have been killed. It's
right back in terms of number of volunteers where it

(05:10):
was before the attack started. Of course, its tunnels have
been destroyed, its arms and rockets have been destroyed. But
I suspect that mister Netanya, who looked at the situation
and Garsman, thought we're taking casualties there. Ten is ready
soldiers killed in the past week. We're not achieving anything more.
Time to stop. I think the focus will now move elsewhere.

(05:33):
And the question, the big question now is what are
mister neth And has intentions towards Iran?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, thank you so much for your time. Paul, that
is Paul would he's a columnist for the Spectator.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
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