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Israeli cabinet to vote on Gaza ceasefire deal

16 January 2025 10:48 (UTC +04:00)

Israel’s cabinet was expected to meet Thursday to approve a ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, Israeli media reported, a day after mediators announced an agreement they hope will lead to a permanent end to the Gaza war, APA reports citing Al Arabiya.

The truce would take effect on Sunday and involve the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which the terms of a broader peace deal would be finalized, the prime minister of mediator Qatar said Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with both US President Joe Biden and Trump on Wednesday, his office said, thanking them for their help securing the agreement but also cautioning that “final details” were still being hammered out.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, said the deal was the “right move” to bring back hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

Israeli media reported that the cabinet was set to vote on the ceasefire agreement on Thursday morning, even though two of Netanyahu’s ministers have publicly opposed it.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani told a press conference Wednesday that the “two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal.”

“We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” he said.

He said the three countries would monitor the implementation of the ceasefire via a body based in Cairo.

During the initial 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released, he said, “including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded.”

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas to allow for the exchanges, as well as “the return of the displaced people to their residences,” he said.

The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be “finalized” during the initial 42 days, he said.

Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.