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By Alexander Cornwell and Nidal Al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel’s cabinet has approved a cease-fire deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday.
After more than six hours of talks, the government approved a deal early Saturday that would pave the way for an end to the 15-month-old war in the Palestinian Authority, which is controlled by Hamas.
“The government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the release of the hostages will take effect on Sunday,” Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement.
Israeli warplanes have continued heavy attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement. Medics in Gaza said an Israeli air strike early Saturday morning killed five people in a tent in the Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis.
This brings to 119 the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing since the agreement was announced on Wednesday.
After Israel’s cabinet approval, US chief negotiator Brett McGurk said the plan was moving forward.
The cease-fire agreement will take effect on Sunday at 0630 GMT, a spokesman for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X. The White House expects the three female hostages to be released to Israel in the afternoon through the Red Cross.
McGurk told CNN from the White House: “We’ve locked down every detail of this deal. We’re absolutely confident … it’s ready to go into effect on Sunday.”
According to the agreement, a three-phase ceasefire will begin in the first six-week phase, during which hostages held by Hamas will be exchanged for prisoners and detainees held by Israel.
Of the 98 Israeli hostages, 33 are to be released in this phase, including women, children, men over 50, and sick and wounded captives. In return, Israel will release approximately 2,000 Palestinians from its prisons.
They include 737 male, female and teenage prisoners, some of whom belong to Palestinian militant groups accused of attacks that have killed dozens of Israelis, as well as hundreds of Gazan Palestinians who have been held since the war began.
Israel’s Justice Ministry published the list early Saturday, with a ceasefire agreement that would see 30 Palestinian prisoners released on Sunday for every female hostage.
After Sunday’s hostages were released, McGurk said, the deal called for four more female hostages to be released seven days later, followed by three more hostages every seven days.
Hard-liners resist gunfire
The deal was strongly opposed by some hardliners in the Israeli cabinet, according to media reports that 24 ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition government supported the deal while eight opposed it.
The opposition said the cease-fire agreement represented a declaration to Hamas. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givir threatened to resign if approved and urged other ministers to vote against him. However, he said he will not bring down the government.
His fellow finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to quit the government if he does not return to fighting to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire expires.
After a last-minute delay Thursday that Israel blamed on Hamas, Israel’s security cabinet on Friday endorsed the ceasefire ahead of a full cabinet vote.
In the year On October 7, 2023, after the group’s fighters infiltrated Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, Israel launched an offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
The war between the Israeli army and Hamas has ravaged largely urban Gaza, killing more than 46,000 people and displacing the territory’s 2.3 million people several times, according to Gaza officials.
If the ceasefire is successful, the war could ease conflicts in the Middle East, including Iran and its proxies – Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups – as well as the occupied West Bank.
Gazans face a humanitarian crisis due to hunger, cold and disease. The cease-fire agreement calls for more aid, and aid trucks from international organizations have lined up along Gaza’s borders to deliver food, fuel, medicine and other essential supplies.
The Palestinian aid agency UNRWA said on Friday that 4,000 truckloads of aid, half of which is food, are ready to enter the coast.
Waiting for food in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, Palestinians said they hoped the peace deal would end hours-long queues to fill a plate.
I hope this will happen so that we can go to the soup kitchen and find (food) for three or four hours without tiring ourselves, so that we can cook and make the food we want at home – sometimes we don’t even make it at home,” said displaced Palestinian Riham Sheikh al-Eid.
