The Israeli government has approved the cease-fire agreement in Gaza

Israel’s government approved a ceasefire deal early Saturday that would see dozens of hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released, bringing a reprieve in the devastating 15-month war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which announced the agreement after the full Cabinet of Ministers voted, said that the agreement will enter into force on Sunday.

Palestinians have celebrated in the hope that a temporary ceasefire will finally end the conflict, and Israelis are looking forward to the return of large numbers of prisoners kidnapped by Hamas.

Oded’s grandfather, Daniel Lifshitz, 84, who was among 250 captured during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, said: “Stomach turns, heart drops, but what we expect.”

The initial attack killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered a wave of Israeli bombardment that killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health officials, who did not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Saturday’s vote was the second and final vote required to ratify the cease-fire and hostage-free agreement. Hours earlier on Friday, the security cabinet voted to approve the deal, which the US and other diplomats see as the best chance to end the war, clearing a key hurdle to signing it. Hamas has already stated that there are no obstacles to the agreement.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who has a largely ceremonial role, welcomed the security cabinet’s vote, although he acknowledged the challenges ahead in bringing the agreement into force. “I have no illusions that the deal will bring with it big problems and painful, painful moments,” he said.

Under the agreement, both sides will begin a six-week ceasefire during which Israeli forces will withdraw eastward from the populated areas. Hamas will release 33 hostages, most of them women and elderly people.

Mr. Lifshitz’s grandfather is among the hostages to be released in the initial phase of the deal, but the family has no word on his welfare or whether he is still alive. “It is impossible to prepare for the celebration and the funeral at the same time,” he said.

Israel will also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including some serving long sentences for attacks against Israelis. On Friday evening, the Israeli government released a list of the first 95 Palestinian prisoners to be released on Sunday. Khalida JarrarA well-known lawmaker in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

According to an Israeli official who did not want to be named, the ceasefire agreement was adopted with 24 ministers voting in favor and eight ministers voting against. The official said that most of the ministers who voted against the agreement belong to the two far-right parties that denounced the agreement.

The ceasefire will be the first since November 2023, when 105 hostages were freed in a week-long truce in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

A series of questions overshadowed celebrations among relatives of the hostages, Gazans desperate for an end to the war and diplomats who have struggled for months to broker a ceasefire. It is unclear what will happen after the first phase of the 42-day ceasefire agreement, including whether Israel intends to extend the second phase of the deal and a lasting ceasefire that would allow the remaining hostages in Gaza to return home. .

“I’ll be the happiest to see any of the hostages come back, but there’s also great concern about the second phase,” said Doron Zekser, a prominent campaigner for the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a full cabinet meeting on Friday, early Saturday facing internal rebellion from far-right partners on whom he depends to hold his ruling coalition together.

On Thursday night, one such partner, hardline national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced he would resign from the coalition if the cabinet approves the ceasefire agreement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also threatened to leave the government if Mr. Netanyahu moves from the first phase of the ceasefire to the permanent phase.

Their steps will not prevent the progress of the initial phase of the Gaza agreement. But they will add more uncertainty to Israel’s long-term commitment to a cease-fire, as hardliners in the government push for the Israeli military to resume the war and destroy Hamas.

Despite the optimistic statements of outgoing officials in the Biden administration, the post-war plan for Gaza is also unclear. US Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken told reporters on Thursday that the cease-fire is a “moment of historic opportunity for the region,” creating opportunities for lasting peace, the reconstruction of Gaza, “a credible path to a Palestinian state,” and the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

But while President Biden said Thursday he was pushing Mr. Netanyahu to address Palestinian concerns, Israel’s prime minister He has consistently rejected US calls To work towards the creation of a Palestinian state.

“He has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns of the Palestinians,” Mr. Biden said. Interview with MSNBC on Thursday. He called Mr. Netanyahu a friend, but added: “We don’t agree a lot lately.”

Even after negotiators announced a cease-fire agreement, deadly Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza. The Israeli army said on Thursday that it had hit about 50 targets across the territory over the past day, while Gaza officials said dozens of people were killed.

“The truce feels meaningless,” Ahmed al-Mashharwi, who is sheltering with more than a dozen relatives in a rented house in Gaza City, said in a telephone interview on Friday. “Artillery and air attacks continue around us, especially in the north of Gaza.”

He said that the situation in northern Gaza is dire, prices are rising and basic goods are scarce.

“We can’t get food or clean water and my children are hungry,” said Mr al-Mashharwi. “We’ve been stripped of everything – no security, no resources, nothing to help us survive.”

A ceasefire should pave the way for this More humanitarian aid will be sent to Gaza. Aid deliveries will accelerate from 40 to 50 a day in recent months to 500 to 600 trucks, the World Health Organization said on Friday, allowing for the first steps toward restoring health services after more than a year of war.

“We will see if the political will is there, if the obstacles are removed and if the routes are opened,” Dr. Rick Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the Palestinian territories, told reporters on Friday.

According to Al Qahera News, the Egyptian state television channel, hundreds of aid trucks carrying food, tents and other supplies were lined up in Arish, near the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Aid workers also hope the ceasefire will allow more medical evacuations. Israel has approved the evacuation of 5,405 patients since the start of the war, WHO said. But after Israel closed the Rafah crossing in May, the pace of evacuations slowed down. Of the 1,200 patients the WHO said applied for approval for evacuation in a one-month period at the end of 2024, Israel accepted the move for only 29.

It is now trying to resume regular transfers to hospitals in East Jerusalem and Egypt, as well as access to hospitals abroad.

James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency, told reporters: “This is not a logistical problem. “It’s a problem of intent.”

Nick Cumming-Bruce He presented a report from Geneva.