Israel’s Cabinet yesterday voted to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The ceasefire, set to begin today, would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza’s deadliest-ever war.
It would also enable the release of hostages held in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Photo: The Israeli Government Press Office via AFP
“The government has approved the hostage return plan,” Netanyahu’s office said early yesterday morning after the Cabinet held its vote.
The Israeli Ministry of Justice has said 737 prisoners and detainees would be freed as part of the first phase of the deal — none before 4pm local time today.
Israeli strikes have killed dozens since the ceasefire deal was announced, with the Israeli military saying on Thursday it had hit about 50 targets across Gaza over the previous 24 hours.
Photo: AFP
The truce is to take effect on the eve of the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump. It was earlier approved by Israel’s security Cabinet, with Netanyahu’s office saying it “supports achieving the objectives of the war.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian Authority has completed preparations “to assume full responsibility in Gaza” after the war.
Even before the truce begins, displaced Gazans were preparing to return home.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I will go to kiss my land,” said Nasr al-Gharabli, who fled his home in Gaza City for a camp further south. “If I die on my land, it would be better than being here as a displaced person.”
In Israel, there was joy, but also anguish over the remaining hostages.
Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday was yesterday, is the youngest hostage.
Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri had died in an air-strike, but with the Israeli military yet to confirm their deaths, many are clinging to hope.
“I think of them, these two little redheads, and I get shivers,” said 70-year-old Osnat Nyska, whose grandchildren attended nursery with the Bibas brothers.
Two far-right Israeli 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.
The Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally of Israeli official figures.
Of the 251 people taken hostage, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,876 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
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