Israel’s cabinet voted to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal on Saturday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ending days of uncertainty about whether the truce would go into effect this weekend.
The ceasefire, set to begin Sunday, 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’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
“The government has approved the hostage return plan”, Netanyahu’s office said early Saturday morning after the cabinet held its vote.
Israel’s justice ministry has said 737 prisoners and detainees will be freed as part of the first phase of the deal
Israeli strikes have killed dozens since the ceasefire deal was announced, with the military saying Thursday it had hit about 50 targets across Gaza over the previous 24 hours.
The truce is to take effect on the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump, who claimed credit for working with outgoing US President Joe Biden’s team to seal the deal.
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It was earlier approved by Israel’s security cabinet, with Netanyahu’s office saying it “supports achieving the objectives of the war”.
Palestinian president Mahmud 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.
“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 taken in the Hamas attack.
Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday falls on Saturday, 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 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.
“I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday,” he said.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds more since the deal was announced on Wednesday.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages and could turn their “freedom… into a tragedy”.
The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
