Israel’s wartime cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a cease-fire deal in Gaza. The country’s Prime Minister’s Office confirmed this information in a statement early Saturday morning.
“The government of Israel has approved the hostage return plan,” the statement said. This plan is effective from tomorrow Sunday.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s Ministry of Justice said in a separate statement that 95 Palestinians imprisoned in various prisons will be released on Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire. Among them 69 women, 16 men and 10 minors. The Ministry of Justice has also released the names of 95 people awaiting release.
In a press conference in Qatar’s capital Doha last Wednesday, the country’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said that the Gaza Strip’s political group Hamas and Israel’s wartime cabinet have reached an agreement on a long-term ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The agreement was supposed to be approved and voted on in parliament on Thursday, but Netanyahu said his cabinet would not hold a parliamentary vote on the ceasefire until Hamas agreed to all terms. Israel alleged that Hamas was trying to add some new items to the agreement at the last minute.
However, this accusation was strongly rejected by Hamas. “Hamas is committed to signing and implementing the cease-fire agreement proposed by the mediators,” the group’s senior leader Izzat al-Rishq said in a message.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas and its allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters broke through the border fence and entered Israeli territory in an unprecedented attack. 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed in that attack. In addition, 250 people were taken hostage in Gaza by the fighters.
In retaliation for this incident, Israel started a rampage in Gaza from that day, which is still ongoing. Israeli attacks have killed more than 46,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children. And the number of injured people is countless. In addition, the attack displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, which is about 90 percent of the total population of the valley.
Sources: AFP, NDTV