Tel Aviv: Israel’s security cabinet has ratified a ceasefire deal to exchange dozens of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails and pause the 15-month war in Gaza for an initial six weeks.
The approval came after an unexpected delay that sparked fears that last-minute disagreements between Israel and Hamas might scuttle the agreement. Far-right members of the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also threatened to derail months of work to end the conflict.
The deal will now go to the full cabinet for the final signoff so that the agreement can be implemented on Sunday with the release of the first hostages and prisoners.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, welcomed the decision of the security cabinet to approve the deal and said he expected “the government to do so as well soon”. “This is a vital step on the path to upholding the basic commitment a nation has to its citizens,” he said.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s hardline national security minister, who on Thursday announced that he would quit the government if it ratified the ceasefire deal, issued a last-minute plea for other members of the government to vote against the agreement. “Everyone knows that these terrorists will try to harm again, try to kill again,” he said in a video statement.
According to Israeli media, Ben-Gvir and the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, voted against deal, while the other ministers voted in favour.
The Israeli high court is still scheduled to hear petitions against elements of the agreement, but is widely expected not to intervene.
Under the first phase of the deal, which is to last 42 days, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women, including female soldiers, and men aged over 50. In exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages.
Israel has stated that the names of the hostages will be made public only after they had been handed over to the IDF. A list containing the names of those who will be released over the next six weeks has been circulating on the main Israeli news sites since the early hours of Friday morning.
Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes in Gaza until Thursday night. Palestinian authorities said that at least 86 people had been killed in the day after the truce was announced. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said late on Thursday that they had attacked approximately 50 targets throughout the Gaza Strip in 24 hours.
In more than 15 months of war, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed. The international court of justice is studying claims that Israel has committed genocide.
About 1,200 people in Israel were killed and another 250 taken hostage in the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 that triggered the war. One hundred of the hostages were freed in exchange for 240 women and children held in Israeli jails as the result of a ceasefire deal struck in November 2023 that collapsed after a week.