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Benjamin Netanyahu’s full cabinet has endorsed the Gaza ceasefire deal, the Israeli government announced early on Saturday, paving the way for the truce in the 15-month war with Hamas to go into force on Sunday.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said that the ceasefire would take effect at 08.30 local time (06.30 GMT) on Sunday. Later that day, three female hostages are to be freed in exchange for the release of 95 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Over the following six weeks, which will form the first part of a three-phase deal, a further 30 hostages are due to be freed, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinian prisoners.
However, in an indication of the fragility of the arrangements, Netanyahu said on Saturday evening that Israel would not move ahead with the deal until Hamas provided it a list of the hostages to be released in the first phase.
“Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement,” he said.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of one of two far-right parties in Netanyahu’s five-party coalition that have bitterly opposed the deal, said that he would pull his party out of the government in protest.
The leader of the second party Bezalel Smotrich said that his party was set to stay in government, claiming it had won concessions from Netanyahu.
“Look at Gaza, it’s destroyed, uninhabitable, and it will stay this way,” he said in a statement, adding that the war in Gaza would be resumed after the hostage exchange was completed, and would continue until the destruction of Hamas.
Ben-Gvir’s departure means that Netanyahu’s majority in the Israeli parliament will be reduced to just two seats.
On Wednesday US-led mediators announced that both sides in the negotiations had agreed to the three-phase deal to halt the 15-month war and free the 98 hostages still held by Hamas.
However, Israel’s formal approval was delayed because of disagreements with Hamas over which Palestinian prisoners should be released and political tensions inside Netanyahu’s government.
The Israeli prime minister’s office on Friday said Netanyahu’s security cabinet had endorsed the deal, which then had to be approved by a majority vote of all the ministers in government.
That inner group of ministers had given it a green light “after examining all the diplomatic, security and humanitarian aspects; and with the understanding that the proposed agreement supports the achievement of the war’s goals”, it said.
Ministers gathered on Friday evening but the meeting went well past the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, when the Israeli government usually halts all business. They announced their approval at about 1am on Saturday.
While Israel had previously accused Hamas of backtracking on the agreement, the prime minister’s office on Thursday night said Netanyahu had been “updated by the negotiating team that agreements have been reached on a deal for the release of the hostages”.
