A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is set to begin Sunday at 8:30 a.m., mediator Qatar said Saturday after Israel’s Cabinet voted to approve the truce and hostage release agreement.
Following a meeting that lasted more than six hours into the early morning on Saturday, the Israeli government ratified the agreement, which could lead to a permanent end to the 15-month war with Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip enclave.
“The government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages’ release will come into effect on Sunday,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Netanyahu’s office said the deal “supports achieving the objectives of the war.”
But later on Saturday, Netanyahu said Israel will not proceed with the ceasefire until it gets the list of the 33 hostages who will be released by Hamas in the first phase of the deal, according to media reports.
“Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement. The sole responsibility lies with Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a statement on social media platform X.
Also on Saturday, Israel’s ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir quit Netanyahu’s cabinet in protest over the ceasefire deal, according to media reports. He previously said the deal was “reckless” and that it would “erase the achievements of the war.”
In a statement Saturday, Hamas — designated as a terror group by the United States, Britain and other Western countries — contended that Israel had “failed to achieve its aggressive goals” and “only succeeded in committing war crimes that disgrace the dignity of humanity.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages. Just under 100 hostages are thought to remain in Hamas custody, but about one-third of those are believed to be dead.
Gaza authorities say nearly 47,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in subsequent Israeli military operations. Without providing evidence, Israel says the death toll includes thousands of militants it has killed.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which have been mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas for months, announced the ceasefire on Wednesday.
The ceasefire will begin with a three-week pause in fighting and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, men over 50 and ill and wounded captives, are expected to be released in this phase. In return, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinians from its jails.
The White House said it expects three female hostages to be released to Israel in the afternoon through the Red Cross. Israel’s Justice Ministry published their details early on Saturday, plus the ceasefire agreement, which said 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage on Sunday.
After Sunday, lead U.S. negotiator Brett McGurk said, the agreement calls for four more female hostages to be released after seven days, followed by the release of three further hostages every seven days.
In this first phase of the three-stage deal, Israeli troops will pull back to the edges of Gaza, and many Palestinians will be able to return to what remains of their homes as increased aid flows into the enclave, which has been decimated in the war.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said Saturday the deal provides for the entry of 600 trucks per day into Gaza, including 50 trucks of fuel.
Israeli strikes on Gaza have continued since the ceasefire was announced, including on Saturday.
Israeli tanks shelled the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, while airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza, according to residents. Medics in Gaza said five people were killed in an airstrike that hit a tent in the Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The Israeli army said in a statement Saturday that it conducted strikes on 50 “terror targets” across the territory on Friday alone.
At least 123 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire was announced a few days ago, according to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service.
Some information in this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
