January 19 – March 18, 2025 · Gaza Strip Theater
January 19 – March 18, 2025
Announced on January 15, 2025 and in force from January 19, the first real ceasefire of the war was structured in three phases. The opening phase traded 33 Israeli hostages — women, civilians, and soldiers held since October 7, 2023 — for roughly 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, and required Israeli forces to pull back from populated areas of the Strip. Aid convoys entered at a scale not seen since the war began, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans walked north to find their neighborhoods gone. The releases were staged as public spectacles by both sides. The phase held for two months and expired on March 18 without agreement on the second, which would have required Israel to end the war outright.
Commanders