# A Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange takes effect

Date: 2025

## The fact

In January 2025 a Qatar- and Egypt-brokered ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas took effect, with [Netanyahu](/people/benjamin-netanyahu) as prime minister. Later collapse and the October 2025 plan are neighbouring later instruments.

## Context

Mediators in Doha and Cairo sat. Neighbouring October 2025 [Trump](/people/mig-donald-trump) plan is a later ceasefire. He did not write Hamas’s lists.

10 October 2025 is a later pause. 7 October 2023 is the parent war.

The Prime Minister of Israel chairs the cabinet, is the political principal of the IDF, and can table Knesset bills. He does not write a Hamas military order, an ICC judgment, a US presidential proclamation, or a UN Security Council resolution.

## Evidence and sources

Prime Minister's Office of Israel carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [humanitarian access](/drivers/humanitarian-access): a completed pause and hostage return is a dated relief instrument, not a unique reconstruction coefficient.

## What is established and what is not

Established: January 2025 Gaza ceasefire and exchange taking effect, independently reported.

Not established: that the war ended permanently, or a unique later housing-rebuild coefficient from that week.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Hamas agreed. Qatar and Egypt mediated.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies A Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange takes effect, not a later speech about A Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange takes effect.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. A Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange takes effect on 2025-01-19 is not a licence to treat every later Prime Minister's Office of Israel communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average A Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange takes effect into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He authorised the Israeli side. Hamas agreed. Qatar and Egypt mediated. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Benjamin Netanyahu: https://factrail.ai/people/benjamin-netanyahu

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access
- Israel–Gaza war (Oct 2023+): https://factrail.ai/drivers/israel-gaza-war
- October 7 Hamas attack and Israel-Gaza war: https://factrail.ai/drivers/october-7-hamas-attack-and-israel-gaza-war
- Forced-Displacement Scale: https://factrail.ai/drivers/forced-displacement-scale

## Sources

- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/19/israel-hamas-ceasefire-takes-effect-in-gaza
- https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-hostages-2025-01-19/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/il-gaza-ceasefire-2025-jan