Israel’s approval of the agreement paves the way for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages

The Israeli government ratified a ceasefire with the Palestinian Hamas movement on Friday, paving the way for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza within 24 hours and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza within 72 hours thereafter.

The Israeli government approved the deal early Friday morning, nearly 24 hours after the mediators announced an agreement to release Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, in the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s initiative to end the two-year-old war in Gaza.

“The government has just approved the framework for the release of all hostages – living and dead,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s English-language X account said.

The war deepened Israel’s international isolation, turned the Middle East upside down, and developed into a regional conflict that attracted Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon. It also tested US-Israeli relations, as Trump appears to have begun to lose his patience with Netanyahu and is pressuring him to reach an agreement.

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Israelis and Palestinians alike rejoiced after the deal was announced, the biggest step yet to end two years of war in which more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, and return the last hostages taken by Hamas in the deadly attacks it began.

‘I finish?’

In Deir al-Balah in Gaza, it was not the sounds of drones that were heard on Thursday, but rather the sounds of car horns and the rapid conversations of people walking freely.

Mahmoud Abdullah expressed cautious optimism about the deal. “Everything that happened, is it over?” asked CBC freelance videographer Mohamed Saifi. “No more bombing, no more drones, no displacement, no hunger… all these things are over?”

The 27-year-old said that he has been displaced more than 10 times since the war began.

Abdullah said: “Happiness is too great to describe. The struggle of two million people will end soon.”

Khalil al-Hayya, the exiled Hamas leader in Gaza, said he had received guarantees from the United States and other mediators that the war was over.

The hostages will be released within 72 hours

An Israeli government spokesman said that the ceasefire will enter into force within 24 hours of the government’s approval of the agreement. The hostages held in Gaza will then be released within 72 hours.

Twenty Israeli hostages are believed to be still alive in Gaza, while 26 hostages are presumed killed, and the fate of two is unknown.

Einav Zugauker, whose son Matan was one of the last hostages, rejoiced in Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostage Square, where families of those captured in the Hamas attack that sparked the war two years ago have long gathered.

“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t explain what I’m feeling…it’s crazy,” she said.

Hamas indicated that recovering the bodies of the dead may take longer than releasing the living. Under the agreement, fighting will stop, Israel will partially withdraw from Gaza, and Hamas will release all remaining hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of prisoners held by Israel.

In Gaza, Majdi Abu Eyada told CBC News that he felt releasing Palestinian prisoners was not worth the bloodshed his home and family had gone through in the past two years.

His father was killed, as were other members of his family.

“What do you want me to go back to… to my destroyed house? To the neighborhood where I live without water, internet or anything?

“I don’t want to go back,” he said.

Returning aid to Gaza

The agreement, if fully implemented, would bring the two sides closer than any previous effort to stop the war.

Fleets of trucks carrying food and medical aid will be allowed to enter Gaza to provide relief to civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have taken refuge in tents after Israeli forces destroyed their homes and leveled entire cities to the ground.

But things can still go a lot wrong.

Even after the agreement was signed, a Palestinian source said that the list of Palestinians to be released has not yet been finalized. The group seeks to release some of the most prominent Palestinian convicts detained in Israeli prisons, in addition to hundreds of people who were arrested during the Israeli attack.

One prisoner believed to be on that list is… Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader who is serving several life sentences For their involvement in the attacks that resulted in the deaths of Israelis and Who remains the most popular leader among the Palestinians.

“Barghouti has credibility with Palestinian factions, even while he is in prison,” Janice Stein of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto told CBC News. “He was able to communicate, and many viewed him as a No. 1 personPost-Abbas form of someone who can monotheize The Palestinians.”

The issue of governance in Gaza has not yet been finalized

Additional steps in Trump’s 20-point plan have not yet been discussed. Those issues include how to govern the torn Gaza Strip when the fighting ends and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has so far rejected Israel’s demands to disarm.

The agreement stipulates that daily operations in the Strip will be managed by a transitional government composed of “qualified” Palestinians and international experts. Hamas will not have any role “directly, indirectly, or in any way.”

That government will be accountable to a new oversight committee called the “Peace Council.” It will be chaired by Trump.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will also be on the board, along with heads of state whose names have not yet been revealed.

But before that, the question remains How will Israeli forces withdraw from the Gaza Strip?

When trump Released His multi-point ceasefire plan last week initially included a rough and inaccurate map for withdrawal. It is later to publish A more detailed map showing where the IDF will withdraw after the remaining hostages are released.

The map indicates that the Israeli army will remain in populated areas, including Rafah, Beit Hanoun and Khuza’a, in addition to the Philadelphia Corridor, the narrow buffer zone along the Egypt-Gaza border that Israel sought to control in order to control border crossings.

The withdrawal line indicates that the Israeli army will continue to partially encircle Gaza City.

More than 67,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which began after Hamas-led militants stormed Israeli towns and a music festival on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.