The Israeli government has ratified a ceasefire deal to exchange dozens of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails and pause the 15-month war in Gaza for an initial six weeks.
Under the deal, approved after a cabinet meeting that ended in the early hours of Saturday, a six-week ceasefire will take effect on Sunday, though key questions remain, including the names of the 33 hostages to be released during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire and who among them is still alive.
“The government has approved the hostage return plan”, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
The agreement, which was earlier approved by the security cabinet, came despite an unexpected delay on Friday that sparked fears that last-minute disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group might scuttle the agreement.
Far-right members of the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had threatened to vote against the deal or quit the government, potentially derailing months of work to end the conflict.
The government announced the approval after 1 a.m. Jerusalem time Saturday, following a six-hour meeting of the full cabinet that went well past the beginning of the Jewish sabbath, a rare occurrence and a reflection of the moment’s importance.
At a separate meeting in Cairo, negotiators from Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel agreed on “all necessary arrangements to implement” the Gaza truce deal, Egyptian state-linked media reported.
Earlier on Friday Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, welcomed the security cabinet’s decision, saying: “This is a vital step on the path to upholding the basic commitment a nation has to its citizens.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu’s hardline national security minister, who on Thursday announced that he would quit the government if it ratified the ceasefire deal, potentially collapsing the ruling coalition, issued a last-minute plea for other parliamentarians to vote against the agreement. “Everyone knows that these terrorists will try to harm again, try to kill again,” he said in a video statement.
According to Israeli media, Ben-Gvir and the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, voted against the deal, while the other ministers voted in favour. David Amsalem, a minister who is not part of the security cabinet’s voting plenary, raised his hand in opposition during the vote.
The Israeli high court is scheduled in the 24 hours after the deal passes to hear petitions against the release of Palestinian prisoners, but is widely expected not to intervene.
Under the first phase of the deal, which is to last 42 days, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women (including female soldiers) and men aged over 50, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
About 100 of the Palestinian prisoners slated for release are serving life sentences for violent attacks on Israelis; others were incarcerated for lesser offences, including social media posts, or held in administrative detention, which allows for the pre-emptive arrest of individuals based on undisclosed evidence.
Israel has stated that the names of the hostages will be made public only after they have been handed over to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
A list containing the names of those who will be released over the next six weeks has been circulating on the main Israeli news sites since the early hours of Friday morning. Hamas is expected to publish the names of the hostages to be released on the first day, in the evening before the deal comes into effect.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said the French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed.
The releases will be staggered. On Sunday, three Israeli hostages are expected to be released, followed by four more on the seventh day, and again at the end of each week of the ceasefire.
On Friday, Israel’s ministry of justice issued a partial list of 95 prisoners who will be released in the first phase of the deal. It includes Palestinian parliament member and feminist lawmaker Khalida Jarrar, 61, a prominent figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a faction in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, who was arrested by the Israeli army on 26 December, and has been detained without trial since then.
A Palestinian minor being held in connection with a shooting attack in Jerusalem in 2023 that injured an Israeli soldier will also be released.
According to a copy of the agreement seen by the Guardian, nine ill and wounded Israelis will be released in exchange for 110 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli jails.
Men aged over 50 on the list of 33 hostages will be released in return for prisoners serving life sentences at a ratio of 1:3, and 1:27 for other sentences.
Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, two mentally ill Israeli men who entered Gaza a decade ago and have since been held hostage by Hamas, will be released in exchange for 30 prisoners. A further 47 prisoners rearrested after being freed as part of a 2011 deal that brought the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit home from Gaza will also be released.
The deal will also allow in the first phase Palestinians displaced from their homes to move freely around the Gaza Strip, which Israel has cut into two halves with a military corridor.
Wounded people are supposed to be evacuated for treatment abroad, and aid to the territory should increase to 600 trucks a day, above the 500 minimum that aid agencies say is needed to contain Gaza’s devastating humanitarian crisis.
In the second phase, the remaining living hostages would be sent back and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners would be freed, and Israel would completely withdraw from the territory. The specifics are subject to further negotiations, which are due to start 16 days into the first phase.
The third phase would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza would be launched. Arrangements for future governance of the strip remain hazy.
The Biden administration and much of the international community have advocated for the semi-autonomous West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza to Hamas in a brief civil war in 2007, to return to the strip. Israel, however, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion.
Dozens of relatives of hostages signed a letter delivered to Netanyahu on Friday to commit that “all stages of the deal will be carried out until the return of the last hostage”.
G7 leaders welcomed the approval, describing it as a significant development.
“With a ceasefire soon to take hold, it is also crucial that we seize this opportunity to put an end to the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza,” a statement said.
“We reaffirm our support for a credible pathway towards peace leading to a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians live side-by-side in peace, dignity, and security.”
Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes in Gaza until Thursday night. Palestinian authorities said at least 86 people had been killed in the day after the truce was announced. The IDF said late on Thursday that it had attacked approximately 50 targets throughout the Gaza Strip in 24 hours.
In more than 15 months of war, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed. The international court of justice is studying claims that Israel has committed genocide.
About 1,200 people in Israel were killed and another 250 taken hostage in the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 that triggered the war. One hundred of the hostages were freed in exchange for 240 women and children held in Israeli jails as the result of a ceasefire deal struck in November 2023 that collapsed after a week.
