(Reuters) – Israel’s cabinet approved a deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday, a day ahead of the agreement’s scheduled start.
In the early hours of Saturday after meeting for more than six hours, the government ratified the agreement that could pave the way for an end to the 15-month-old war in the Palestinian enclave, which Hamas controls.
“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.
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 the enclave’s south.
This brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment since the accord was announced on Wednesday.
After the Israeli cabinet approval, lead U.S. negotiator Brett McGurk said the plan was moving forward on track. The White House expects the ceasefire to start on Sunday morning, with three female hostages to be released to Israel on Sunday afternoon through the Red Cross.
“We have locked down every single detail in 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 starts with an initial six-week phase when hostages held by Hamas will be exchanged for prisoners detained by Israel.
Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, and men over 50, were due to be freed in this phase. Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under 19 in Israeli jails by the end of the first phase.
The names of 95 Palestinian prisoners to be turned over on Sunday were announced by the Israeli Justice Ministry on Friday.
After Sunday’s hostage release, McGurk said the accord called for four more female hostages to be released after seven days followed by the release of three further hostages every seven days thereafter.
HARDLINERS OPPOSE CEASEFIRE
With the accord bitterly opposed by some Israeli cabinet hardliners, media reports said 24 ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition government voted in favour of the deal while eight opposed it.
The opponents said the ceasefire agreement represented a capitulation to Hamas. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved and urged other ministers to vote against it. However, he said he would not bring down the government.
His fellow hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also threatened to quit the government if it does not go back to war to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire.
After a last-minute delay on Thursday that Israel blamed on Hamas, the Israeli security cabinet voted on Friday in favour of the ceasefire accord, the first of two approvals required.
Israel began its assault on Gaza after Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 during which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
The war between Israeli forces and Hamas has razed much of heavily urbanised 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 also ease hostilities in the Middle East, where the Gaza war spread to include Iran and its proxies – Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq as well as the occupied West Bank.
Gaza civilians have faced a humanitarian crisis due to hunger, cold and sickness. The ceasefire agreement calls for a surge in assistance, and international organisations have aid trucks lined up on Gaza’s borders to bring in food, fuel, medicine and other vital supplies.
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 a truce will mean an end to hours of queuing to fill one plate.
“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.