Published On 17 Jan 2025
Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has approved a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza after more than 460 days of war in which Israeli forces have killed more than 46,788 Palestinians and wounded 110,453.
The Israeli government ratified the ceasefire agreement early on Saturday morning after meeting for more than six hours, 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.
With the deal 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 Israeli security cabinet had voted in favour of the ceasefire deal earlier on Friday.
Under the deal, the ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase where captives in Gaza are released in exchange for Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, and which opens the way to ending the 15-month-old war.
After the ceasefire was ratified by the cabinet, Israeli authorities released an updated list of 737 Palestinian detainees slated to be freed in the first phase of the agreement, which will take place “not before” 4pm local time (14: 00 GMT) on Sunday.
The list includes several members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, who are serving life sentences, The Times of Israel reports.
“So the ceasefire is going ahead,” Al Jazeera’s correspondent Stefanie Dekker said.
“Thirty-three Israeli captives exchanged for around 1,700 Palestinian prisoners over the course of 42 days. But despite the Israeli government having ratified the ceasefire, there remains deep opposition from the right-wing elements of Netanyahu’s cabinet,” Dekker said.
Many people are “sceptical”, Dekker said, and wondering whether the ceasefire will even “get past the first phase”.
Lead negotiator for the US in the ceasefire talks, Brett McGurk, said the White House expected the ceasefire to start on Sunday morning, with three female captives to be released to Israel by 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