The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will come into effect on Sunday at 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT), mediator Qatar announced on Saturday, as families of hostages held in Gaza prepared to receive news of their loved ones, Palestinians were preparing to receive released detainees and humanitarian aid. Groups rushed to organize a surge of aid.
The late-night approval of the deal by Israel's Cabinet, in a rare meeting on the Jewish Sabbath, unleashed a flurry of activity and a new wave of emotions as relatives wondered whether the hostages would be returned alive or dead. The names of the first freed hostages were expected to be made public later Saturday.
The pause in 15 months of war is a step toward ending the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever seen between Israel and the militant group Hamas, and comes more than a year after the only other ceasefire achieved.
The first phase of the ceasefire will last 42 days, and negotiations on the much more difficult second phase will begin in just over two weeks. After those six weeks, Israel's security Cabinet will decide how to proceed.
Israeli airstrikes continued on Saturday and Gaza's Health Ministry said 23 bodies had been taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours.
“What is this truce that kills us hours before it begins?” asked Abdallah Al-Aqad, brother of a woman killed in an airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis. Health officials said a couple and their two children, ages 2 and 7, were dead.
And sirens sounded across central and southern Israel, and the army said it intercepted projectiles launched from Yemen. Iran-backed Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks in recent weeks, calling them solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
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“The first thing I will do is go check my house,” said Mohamed Mahdi, a father of two who was displaced from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. He also hopes to see his family in southern Gaza, but “is still worried that one of us could be martyred before we can be reunited.”
In the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 hostages in Gaza will be released for six weeks in exchange for 737 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israel's Justice Ministry has published a list of the prisoners, all of whom are young or women.
According to the ceasefire plan approved by Israel's Cabinet, the exchange will begin at 4:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT) on Sunday. The plan calls for three live hostages to be returned on day 1, four on day 7, and the remaining 26 over the next five weeks. During each exchange, Israel will release Palestinian prisoners once the hostages have arrived safely.
Also set to be released are 1,167 Gaza residents who did not participate in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 that sparked the war. All women and children under the age of 19 from Gaza held by Israel will be released during this phase.
All Palestinian prisoners convicted of deadly attacks will be exiled to Gaza or abroad (some for three years, others permanently) and barred from returning to Israel or the West Bank.
The remaining hostages in Gaza, including male soldiers, will be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.
Also during the first phase of the ceasefire, Israeli troops will withdraw to a buffer zone about a kilometer (0.6 mile) wide inside Gaza, along its borders with Israel.
That will allow many displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including in Gaza City and largely isolated and devastated northern Gaza. With most of Gaza's population sheltered in huge, squalid tent camps, Palestinians are desperate to return to their homes, even though many have been destroyed or severely damaged.
Gaza should also see an increase in food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid. The trucks were lined up Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza.
On Saturday, two Egyptian government ministers arrived in the northern Sinai Peninsula to oversee preparations to deliver aid through the Rafah crossing and the Kerem Shalom crossing, and to receive the evacuation of injured patients, the ministry said. Egypt Health.
The ceasefire plan approved by Israel's Cabinet says that all trucks entering Gaza will be subject to Israeli inspections.
The Hamas-led attack on October 7 killed about 1,200 people and left about 250 others captive. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children account for more than half of the dead.
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