Israel approved a deal with Hamas in which 50 hostages held by the terrorist group would be freed in exchange for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza that would last at least four days and the release of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
The Qatar-brokered deal was overwhelmingly approved by the Israeli cabinet early Wednesday local time after more than six hours of debate, marking the first major diplomatic breakthrough since the start of the war.
“The government of Israel is committed to bringing all hostages home,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “Tonight, the government approved the first stage scheme to achieve this goal.”
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry later formally announced the agreement in a statement on X and said the start time of the cessation of fighting would be revealed “within the next 24 hours.”
As part of the deal, reached more than six weeks into the war, Hamas will release 50 of the 240 hostages taken during its Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish nation, according to the Israeli government.
The first hostages to be freed would be women and children.
Israel and Hamas reached a tentative deal to release Gaza hostages on Tuesday, according to reports.REUTERS
The hostages will be freed during a four-day ceasefire in Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes and subsequent ground attacks aimed at destroying Hamas.
The pause in fighting would be extended by one more day for every 10 additional hostages freed by Hamas, the Israeli government said.
Three Americans could be among the hostages released under the deal, the official told the outlet.
Protests outside the UNICEF offices in Tel Aviv to demand the release of Israeli hostages. AFP via Getty Images
President Biden said he welcomes the “agreement to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist group Hamas” in a statement Tuesday night.
“Today’s deal should bring home more American hostages, and I will not stop until they are all freed,” Biden said.
“I look forward to speaking with each of these leaders and staying in close contact as we work to ensure this agreement is fully carried out. “It is important that all aspects of this agreement are fully implemented,” the president added.
U.S. officials have said they hoped Abigail Mor Idan, a 3-year-old American girl whose parents were killed on Oct. 7, would be among the children included in the negotiations.
“For our family, we’ve spent the last seven weeks… worrying, wondering, praying, waiting,” Idan’s aunt, Liz Hirsh Naftali, told CNN Tuesday night.
Ten Americans, including the toddler and two women, are still unaccounted for, CNN reported.
In addition to the temporary ceasefire, Israel will release “several Palestinian women and children” imprisoned in the country, according to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.
“The number of people released will increase in later stages of the implementation of the agreement,” the ministry said in its statement.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas captured about 240 hostages on October 7. ABIR SULTAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Hamas said in a statement early Wednesday that 150 women and children imprisoned in Israeli jails will be released.
Israel also agreed to allow more fuel into Gaza and a significant amount of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, Hamas said in the latest statement.
Netanyahu vowed that the Jewish state would resume its offensive against Hamas once the temporary truce expired.
Israel is expected to agree to a multi-day pause in the war in Gaza.via REUTERS Israeli troops operate in the Gaza Strip.via REUTERS
“We are at war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our objectives,” Netanyahu said in a recorded message at the start of the latest government meeting. “To destroy Hamas, return all our hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel.”
Intelligence efforts will continue even during the pause so that the military is ready once fighting resumes, he said.
Ahead of hostage negotiations, Israeli soldiers moved the detained Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
It is unclear whether those transferred could be among the prisoners released in hostage negotiations.
The deal was designed to create the first major pause in the war that has killed more than 1,200 people in the Jewish state and more than 11,500 in Gaza.AFP via Getty Images
The deal was supposedly designed to create the first major pause in the war that has killed more than 1,200 people in the Jewish state and more than 11,500 in Gaza, a loss of life unprecedented in the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
It would be a relief to those sheltering in Gaza after Israel began an all-out bombing and ground assault on the Palestinian enclave, closing hospitals and evacuating civilians to the south.
On Monday, the wounded Palestinians were evacuated from the struggling Indonesian hospital to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The ceasefire agreement is likely to be coordinated with further evacuations out of northern Gaza, where several Hamas headquarters are located, along with more aid trucks to be received at hospitals.
Four hostages have been freed so far, including a mother and daughter with dual US-Israeli citizenship and two elderly Israeli women.
The Israeli army rescued an Israeli soldier in late October after she was kidnapped from its military base.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn