By James Mackenzie and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters
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. Photo: KOBY GIDEON
- Full cabinet ratification follows lengthy meeting, security cabinet approval
- First group of 33 hostages to be released
- Media say cabinet vote was 24-8 in favour of agreement
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, Netanyahu's office said in a brief statement.
"The Government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages' release will come into effect on Sunday," it said.
Medics in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike early on Saturday killed three 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 ceasefire pact was announced on Wednesday.
Lead US negotiator Brett McGurk said the White House expected the ceasefire to start on Sunday morning local time, 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 ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase including hostage-for-prisoner exchanges and could open the way to ending the 15-month-old war.
Thirty-three 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 detained in Israeli jails by the end of the first phase. The Israeli Justice Ministry on Friday released a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in the first exchange on Sunday.
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.
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.
On Friday, the Israeli security cabinet voted in favour of the ceasefire accord, the first of two approvals required.
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, a ceasefire could 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.
-Reuters
