By Summary
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
- Full cabinet ratification follows lengthy meeting, security cabinet approval.
- Israeli airstrike on Gaza kills five early Saturday.
- Media say cabinet vote was 24-8 in favor of agreement.
- Hardline opponents to deal say it gives in to Hamas.
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Jan 18 (AfrikTimes) – Israel’s cabinet approved a deal with Palestinian military group Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Saturday, a day ahead of the agreement’s scheduled start.
In the early hours of Saturday, after more than six hours of deliberations, the government ratified an agreement that could pave the way to ending the 15-month-long genocidal war in the Palestinian enclave controlled by Hamas. ‘The government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages’ release will come into effect on Sunday,’ Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement.
Buildings lie in ruin in North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, January 13, 2025.
In Gaza itself, Israeli warplanes have kept up heavy attacks since the ceasefire deal was agreed. Medics in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike early on Saturday killed five people in a tent in the Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. This brought the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment since the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday to 119.
After the Israeli cabinet’s approval, lead U.S. negotiator Brett McGurk confirmed that the plan was progressing as scheduled. The White House expects the ceasefire to begin on Sunday morning, with three female hostages set to be released to Israel in the afternoon through the Red Cross.
“We have locked down every single detail of this agreement. We are quite confident… it is ready to be implemented on Sunday,” McGurk said on CNN from the White House.
Under the deal, the three-stage ceasefire will begin with an initial six-week phase during which hostages held by Hamas will be exchanged for Palestinians detained unlawfully by Israel. Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, and men over 50, were scheduled to be freed in this phase. By the end of the first phase, Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under the age of 19 held in Israeli prisons.
Israeli cabinet to vote on Gaza ceasefire deal. The truce would take effect on Jan. 19 and involve the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which the terms of a broader peace deal would be finalized.
The names of 95 unjustly incarcerated Palestinians, set to be released on Sunday, were announced by the Israeli Justice Ministry on Friday.
After Sunday’s release of hostages, U.S. negotiator Brett McGurk said the agreement stipulated the release of four additional female hostages after seven days, followed by the release of three more hostages every seven days thereafter.
HARDLINERS OPPOSE CEASEFIRE
The ceasefire agreement faced bitter opposition from some Israeli cabinet hardliners. Media reports indicated that 24 ministers in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition government voted in favor of the deal, while eight opposed it.
The opponents argued that the ceasefire represented a capitulation to Hamas. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if the agreement was approved and urged other ministers to vote against it. However, he stated that he would not bring down the government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another hardliner, also threatened to quit the government unless Israel resumes its war efforts to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire.
This handout picture released by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (6-L), heading a security cabinet meeting to vote on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect on 19 January, in Jerusalem on 17 January 2025.
After a last-minute delay on Thursday, which Israel blamed on Hamas, the Israeli security cabinet voted in favor of the ceasefire accord on Friday, the first of two approvals required.
Israel began its assault on Gaza after Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, during which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures. The war has decimated much of heavily urbanized Gaza, killed more than 46,000 people and displaced most of the enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million several times over, according to local authorities.
If successful, the ceasefire could help ease tensions in the broader Middle East, where the Gaza war spread to include Iran and its allies—Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and armed groups in Iraq, as well as the occupied West Bank.
EU ‘ready’ to restart Gaza border mission after ceasefire deal. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas met Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Brussels after a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s war in the territory.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened due to hunger, cold, and disease. The ceasefire agreement includes provisions for a surge in humanitarian aid, with international organizations preparing to send aid trucks filled with food, fuel, medicine, and other essential supplies into Gaza.
The Palestinian relief agency UNRWA said on Friday that it has 4,000 truckloads of aid, half of which are food, ready to enter the coastal strip.
Palestinians waiting for food in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday said they hoped that the ceasefire would bring an end to the long hours spent queuing for food.
“I hope it will happen, so we’ll be able to cook in our homes and make whatever food we want, without having to go to soup kitchens and exhaust ourselves for three or four hours trying to get food – sometimes not even making it home,” displaced Palestinian Reeham Sheikh al-Eid said.
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack gather in favor of the Gaza ceasefire in front of the Israeli defense ministry in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
