Israel’s cabinet voted
to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal on Saturday, 18 Jan ‘25
the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ending days of
uncertainty about whether the truce would go into effect this weekend. The ceasefire, set to begin on Sunday,
would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza’s deadliest-ever war. Later,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will not proceed with
ceasefire before receiving list of hostages to be released by Hamas,
The deal would also enable the release of hostages
held in the territory since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel in
exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. “The government has approved the hostage return
plan”, Netanyahu’s office said early Saturday morning after the cabinet held
its vote. Israel’s justice ministry has
said 737 prisoners and detainees will be freed as part of the first phase of
the deal — none before 4pm local time (1400 GMT) on Sunday. .
Israeli strikes have
killed dozens since the ceasefire deal was announced, with the military saying
on Thursday it had hit about 50 targets across Gaza over the previous 24 hours.
The truce is to take effect on the eve
of the inauguration of Donald Trump, who claimed credit for working with
outgoing US President Joe Biden’s team to seal the deal. In Israel, there was joy
but also anguish over the remaining hostages taken in the Hamas attack.
Two far-right
ministers had voiced opposition to the deal, with one threatening to quit the
cabinet, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said before the vote he
believed the ceasefire would proceed. “I
am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on
Sunday,” he said.
The ceasefire
agreement followed intensified efforts by mediators Qatar, the United States
and Egypt after months of fruitless negotiations...Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, announcing the agreement on
Wednesday, said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released. On
Friday, he said: “We seek a full implementation of the first phase, and for the
second phase to be the final. “We are
waiting for the Security Council to issue a binding resolution to implement the
agreement.”
Biden said the second phase could bring a
“permanent end to the war”. In aid-starved Gaza, where nearly all of its 2.4
million people have been displaced at least once, humanitarian workers worry
about the monumental task ahead. “Everything has been destroyed, children are
on the streets, you can’t pinpoint just one priority,” Doctors Without Borders
coordinator Amande Bazerolle told AFP.