Israeli government approves Gaza cease-fire deal, set to come into force on Sunday Reuters
Alexander Cornwell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – The Israeli government has approved a deal with the Palestinian militant group Hamas on a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday, a day before the deal was scheduled to begin.
In the early hours of Saturday morning after a meeting that lasted more than six hours, the government ratified the agreement, Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement.
“The government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the release of the hostages will take effect on Sunday,” it said.
Doctors in Gaza said an Israeli air strike early Saturday killed three people in a tent in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in the enclave’s south.
This brings the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombing to 119 since the ceasefire agreement was announced on Wednesday.
Chief US negotiator Brett McGurk said the White House expected the truce to begin Sunday morning and that the three hostages would be released to Israel Sunday afternoon via the Red Cross.
“We’ve locked down every detail in this agreement. We’re pretty confident … that it’s ready to be implemented on Sunday,” McGurk told CNN from the White House.
Under the agreement, the ceasefire begins with an initial six-week phase including a hostage-for-prisoner exchange and could pave the way for an end to the 15-month war.
Thirty-three Israeli hostages, including women, children and men over the age of 50, were to be released at this stage. Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under the age of 19 detained in Israeli prisons by the end of the first phase.
Israel’s Justice Ministry on Friday released a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners who will be freed in the first exchange on Sunday.
After Sunday’s hostage release, McGurk said the deal calls for the release of four more hostages after seven days, followed by the release of three more every seven days.
With the deal fiercely opposed by some hardliners in the Israeli government, media reports say 24 ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition government voted for the deal while eight opposed it.
On Friday, Israel’s security cabinet voted in favor of the cease-fire agreement, the first of two required approvals.
The war between Israeli forces and Hamas leveled much of urbanized Gaza, killing more than 46,000 people and several times displacing most of the enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million, according to local authorities.
If successful, the ceasefire could ease hostilities in the Middle East, where the war in Gaza has spilled over to Iran and its proxies – Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq as well as the occupied West Bank.
