Netanyahu’s office says Israel will agree to Gaza ceasefire and hostage agreement by Reuters

Written by Andrew Mills, Nidal Al-Mughrabi, and James MacKenzie

DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that the Israeli Cabinet will meet to give final approval to an agreement with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, amid fears that the agreement may be delayed. .

In Gaza itself, Israeli warplanes continued their intense strikes, and the Civil Emergency Service said on Friday that at least 101 people, including 58 women and children, had been killed since the agreement was announced.

In light of the clear divisions among the ministers, Israel postponed meetings scheduled to be held on Thursday, when the cabinet was expected to vote on the agreement, and blamed Hamas for the postponement.

But in the early hours of Friday, Netanyahu’s office said approval was imminent and his limited security cabinet was scheduled to meet on Friday before a full cabinet meeting to ratify the agreement would be held later.

“The negotiating team informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that agreements had been reached on an agreement to release the hostages,” his office said in a statement.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not comment on the timing.

Extremist opposition

In what highlights the potential obstacles facing a final ceasefire, hard-liners in Netanyahu’s coalition opposed the agreement as a surrender to Hamas, which runs Gaza, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved. But he said he would not topple the government.

His hardline colleague, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also threatened to resign from the government if it did not return to the war to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire was completed.

However, a majority of ministers were expected to support the agreement.

If the ceasefire succeeds, it will stop the fighting that has devastated most of Gaza’s densely urban areas, killing more than 46,000 people and displacing most of the small enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million several times, according to local authorities.

The Palestinians are also suffering from a humanitarian crisis that includes shortages of food, fuel and water.

In Gaza, mourners gathered on Friday around the body of a man killed in an Israeli raid while women hugged each other and cried.

Jumaa Abdel-Al, a resident, said, “Life has become an unbearable hell.”

Following one of the raids on tents housing displaced people in Khan Yunis, a boy picked up damaged items on the floor, which were littered with canned food and coffee pots.

This attack led to the death of two people and the injury of seven others in a camp near Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, according to medics.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the recent strikes.

The hostage families want quick action

A group representing the families of Israeli hostages in Gaza, 33 of whom are scheduled to be released in the first six-week phase of the agreement, urged Netanyahu to move forward quickly.

“For the 98 hostages, every night is another night of a terrible nightmare,” the group said in a statement broadcast by Israeli media late Thursday evening. “Do not delay their return even for one more night.”

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Thursday that the “loose end” in the negotiations must be resolved.

An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that this was a dispute over the identities of some prisoners that Hamas wanted to release. The official said that envoys of President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are in Doha with Egyptian and Qatari mediators to work on resolving the problem.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said that the movement is still committed to the ceasefire agreement.

A ceasefire agreement was reached on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. The agreement stipulates an initial ceasefire for six weeks with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. Dozens of hostages held by Hamas, including women, children, the elderly and the sick, will be released in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

It paves the way for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza, where the majority of the population has been displaced and faces hunger, disease and cold.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas-led militants stormed Israeli border communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and kidnapping more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.