The Israeli government approves the ceasefire agreement in Gaza

The Israeli government approved a ceasefire deal with Hamas early Saturday that calls for the release of dozens of hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners after hours of deliberations, marking the first reprieve in the devastating 15-month war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which announced the agreement after a vote by the full Cabinet, said the agreement would go into effect on Sunday.

The Palestinians have celebrated the temporary ceasefire in hopes that it will finally end the conflict, and the Israelis are anxiously awaiting the return of dozens of prisoners kidnapped by Hamas.

“The stomach is turning, the heart is pouring out on the floor, but it’s what we’ve been waiting for,” said Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded, 84, was among 250 prisoners taken in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The initial attack killed about 1,200 people, triggering a wave of Israeli bombing that killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

The vote that took place on Saturday was the second and final vote required to approve the ceasefire agreement and the release of the hostages. Hours before Friday, the security cabinet voted to approve it, overcoming a major hurdle to enacting the agreement that US and other diplomats see as the best chance to end the war. Hamas said that there were no longer any obstacles to the agreement.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial position, praised the security cabinet vote, though he acknowledged the difficulties ahead in operationalizing the agreement. He said in a statement: “I have no illusions – the agreement will bring with it great challenges and painful and painful moments.”

Under the agreement, the two sides begin a six-week truce, during which Israeli forces withdraw eastward, away from populated areas. Hamas will release 33 hostages who are still in captivity, most of whom are women and the elderly.

Mr. Lifshitz’s grandfather is among the hostages scheduled to be released in the initial phase of the deal, but the family has no information about his condition or whether he is still alive. “Preparing for a celebration and a funeral at the same time is impossible,” he said.

Israel will also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including some serving long sentences for attacks on Israelis. On Friday evening, the Israeli government released a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners that it said would be among the first to be released on Sunday, including Khaleda JarrarHe is a prominent lawmaker in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The ceasefire agreement was passed with 24 ministers voting in favor and eight ministers opposing, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said that most of the ministers who voted against the agreement belong to two far-right parties that condemned the agreement.

The truce will be the first since November 2023, when 105 hostages were released in a week-long ceasefire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

But a host of questions clouded the celebrations among relatives of the hostages, Gazans eager for an end to the war, and diplomats who have struggled for months to broker a truce. What will happen after the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, scheduled to last 42 days, is unclear, including whether Israel intends to pursue the second phase of the agreement and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, allowing the remaining hostages to return to their homes. .

“I will be the happiest man alive to see any of the hostages returned, but there is also great concern about the second phase,” said Doron Zixer, a prominent activist for the release of Israeli-American hostage Idan Alexander.

While the full Cabinet met on Friday, at the beginning of Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in office In the face of internal rebellion One of the far-right partners he relies on to keep his ruling coalition together.

On Thursday night, one of those partners, the hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, announced that he would resign from the coalition if the government approved the ceasefire deal. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also threatened to resign from the government if Mr. Netanyahu moved from the first phase of the ceasefire to a permanent phase.

Their moves, in and of themselves, will not prevent the initial phase of the Gaza deal from moving forward. But it may create more uncertainty about Israel’s commitment to a long-term ceasefire, with hard-line members of the government pressuring the Israeli military establishment to resume the war and seek to destroy Hamas.

It is also unclear that there is a post-war plan for Gaza, despite optimistic assurances from departing officials in the Biden administration. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, He told reporters on Thursday That the ceasefire was “a moment of historic possibility for the region,” creating opportunities for lasting peace, the reconstruction of Gaza, a “credible path to a Palestinian state” and the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

But while President Biden said Thursday he pushed Netanyahu to respond to Palestinian concerns, the Israeli prime minister did so She constantly refused American calls To work towards the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state.

“He has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of the Palestinians, Biden said Interview with MSNBC Thursday. He described Mr. Netanyahu as a friend but added: “We don’t get along very much lately.”

Even after negotiators announced a ceasefire agreement, deadly Israeli air strikes in Gaza continued. The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had struck about 50 targets across the Strip during the previous day, while officials in Gaza reported that dozens of people had been killed.

“The ceasefire is meaningless,” Ahmed Al-Mashharawi, who was sheltering with more than a dozen relatives in a rented house in Gaza City, said in a phone interview on Friday. He added: “Artillery shelling and air strikes continue around us, especially in northern Gaza.”

He said that the conditions in northern Gaza are dire, with high prices and a shortage in the supply of basic goods.

“We cannot buy food or clean water, and my children are hungry,” Mr. Al-Mashharawi said. “We have been stripped of everything. There is no safety, no resources, nothing to help us survive.”

The ceasefire is supposed to pave the way for this More humanitarian aid arrives in Gaza. The World Health Organization said on Friday that it hopes the pace of aid deliveries will accelerate significantly to between 500 and 600 trucks per day from 40 to 50 per day in recent months, and allow the first steps to be taken towards restoring health services after more than a year of war.

“We will see if the political will is there, remove the obstacles and open the roads,” Dr. Rick Pepperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters on Friday.

Hundreds of aid trucks carrying food, tents and other supplies were lined up in Al-Arish, near the Rafah crossing with Egypt, according to Cairo News, an Egyptian state-owned television channel.

Aid workers also hope the ceasefire will allow for more medical evacuations. The World Health Organization reported that Israel had agreed to evacuate 5,405 patients since the beginning of the war. But the pace of evacuations slowed significantly after Israel closed the Rafah crossing in May. Of the 1,200 patients the WHO said applied for approval to evacuate over a one-month period in late 2024, Israel accepted the movement of only 29.

She is now looking forward to resuming regular transfers to hospitals in East Jerusalem and Egypt, as well as accessing hospitals abroad.

“This is not a logistical problem,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency, told reporters. “It’s a problem of intent.”

Nick Cumming Bros He contributed reporting from Geneva.