The Israeli government has approved an agreement with the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday (local time), a day before the expected start of the agreement.
In the early hours of Saturday, after a meeting that lasted more than six hours, the government ratified the agreement, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Under the deal, which some hardline government ministers oppose, a six-week ceasefire will come into force on Sunday, with the first of a series of hostage exchanges for prisoners that could pave the way for the 15 months to end. war in Gaza.
Media reported that 24 ministers from Netanyahu’s ruling coalition voted in favor of the deal, while eight opposed it.
Israel’s security cabinet voted in favor of the ceasefire agreement on Friday, the first of two necessary approvals.
According to local authorities, the war between Israeli forces and Hamas has razed much of heavily urbanized Gaza, killed more than 46,000 people and repeatedly displaced most of the enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 millions.
If successful, the ceasefire could ease hostilities in the Middle East, where the Gaza war has spread to include Iran and its allies – Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen and armed groups in Iraq, as well as the occupied West Bank.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes continued heavy attacks on Friday and the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said 116 Palestinians, nearly 60 of them women and children, had been killed since the deal was announced on Wednesday.
As part of the first six weeks of the three-phase agreement, Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages, including all women (soldiers and civilians), children and men over the age of 50.
Israel will release all Palestinian women and minors under 19 detained in Israeli prisons by the end of the first phase.
Source: Terra
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