A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will take effect Sunday morning, officials say – The National

A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will take effect at 8:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) Sunday, mediator Qatar announced Saturday, as families of hostages in Gaza braced for news of loved ones, Palestinians prepared to receive freed prisoners and humanitarian aid groups rushed to establish a wave of aid.

Approval of the deal by the Israeli government overnight, in a rare meeting during the Jewish Sabbath, set off a flurry of activity and a new wave of emotion as relatives wondered whether the hostages would be returned alive or dead. The names of the first freed hostages should be announced later on Saturday.

The 15-month pause in the war is a step towards ending the deadliest, most destructive fighting ever between Israel and the Hamas militant group – and comes more than a year after the only other ceasefire achieved.

The first phase of the truce will last 42 days, and negotiations on the far more difficult second phase should begin in a little more than two weeks. After those six weeks, the Israeli security cabinet will decide how to proceed.

Israeli airstrikes continued on Saturday, and Gaza’s Health Ministry said 23 bodies had been delivered to hospitals in the past 24 hours.

“What kind of truce is it that kills us hours before it starts?” asked Abdallah Al-Aqad, the brother of the woman killed in the airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis. Health officials said the couple and their two children, ages 2 and 7, were dead.

Sirens sounded across central and southern Israel, and the military said it intercepted missiles fired from Yemen. Iran-backed Houthi rebels there have stepped up attacks in recent weeks, calling it solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

In a post on X, Qatar’s foreign minister advised Palestinians and others to be cautious when the ceasefire goes into effect and to wait for instructions from officials.

“The first thing I will do is go and check my house,” said Mohamed Mahdi, a father of two who was displaced from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. He also looks forward to seeing family in southern Gaza, but is “still worried that one of us might be killed before we can meet.”

In the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 hostages in Gaza are to be released over six weeks in exchange for 737 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israel’s Ministry of Justice released a list of the prisoners, all of them young or female.

According to the cease-fire plan approved by the Israeli cabinet, the exchange will begin at 16:00 (14:00 GMT) on Sunday. The plan says that three living female hostages will be returned on the first day, four on the seventh day and the remaining 26 over the next five weeks. During each exchange, Israel will release the Palestinian prisoners once the hostages have arrived safely.

1,167 Gazans who were not involved in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that sparked the war will also be released. All women and children under the age of 19 from Israel-held Gaza will be freed during this phase.

All Palestinian prisoners convicted of the deadly attacks will be deported to Gaza or abroad – some for three years, others permanently – and barred from returning to Israel or the West Bank.

The remaining hostages in Gaza, including male soldiers, will be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first. Hamas said it would not release the remaining prisoners without a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.

Also, during the first phase of the ceasefire, Israeli troops are supposed to withdraw to a buffer zone about a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide inside Gaza, along its border with Israel.

This will allow many displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including Gaza City and the largely isolated and devastated northern part of Gaza. With most of Gaza’s population sheltered in huge, squalid tent camps, Palestinians are desperate to return to their homes, even though many have been destroyed or badly damaged.

Gaza should also see an increase in food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid. Trucks are lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing to Gaza on Friday.

On Saturday, two Egyptian government ministers arrived in the northern Sinai Peninsula to oversee preparations for the delivery of aid through the Rafah crossing, as well as the Kerem Shalom crossing, and to await the evacuation of wounded patients, the Egyptian Ministry of Health said.

The cease-fire plan approved by the Israeli cabinet says that all trucks entering Gaza will be subject to Israeli inspection.

An attack led by Hamas on October 7 killed around 1,200 people and captured around 250. Almost 100 hostages remained in Gaza.

Israel responded with an offensive that killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants, but say women and children make up more than half of the dead.

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