The settlement in Egypt follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza introduced final month by US President Donald Trump, after greater than two years of battle sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 assault on Israel.
Israel’s safety cupboard was attributable to meet from 1400 GMT, and a ceasefire was to take maintain in devastated Gaza “inside 24 hours”, authorities spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian mentioned.
“The ultimate draft of section one was signed this morning in Egypt by all events to launch all of the hostages,” she informed journalists.
“Now section one stands very clear: all of our hostages, the residing and the deceased, shall be launched 72 hours later, which can carry us to Monday,” she mentioned.
From 1500 GMT, Israel’s full cupboard met to approve the deal, beneath which the navy ought to withdraw from Gaza and launch a whole bunch of Palestinian prisoners in trade for the hostages.
The deal additionally envisions a surge of help into Gaza, the place the UN has declared famine.
The Israeli military mentioned it was getting ready to tug again troops in Gaza, consistent with the settlement.
Trump’s plan additionally requires the disarmament of Hamas and for Gaza to be dominated by a transitional authority headed by the US president himself, although these factors have but to be addressed in discussions.
A supply inside Hamas informed AFP the group will trade 20 residing hostages all on the identical time for practically 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as a part of the deal’s first section.
“TEARS OF JOY”
The announcement sparked pleasure in Gaza, a lot of which has been flattened by bombardment and most of whose residents have been displaced at the least as soon as over the previous two years.
“Actually, once I heard the information, I could not maintain again. Tears of pleasure flowed. Two years of bombing, terror, destruction, loss, humiliation, and the fixed feeling that we might die at any second,” displaced Palestinian Samer Joudeh informed AFP.
In Israel, hundreds of individuals gathered in a Tel Aviv sq. to have fun, some holding photographs of hostages nonetheless in Gaza and waving Israeli and US flags.
Many wore stickers studying: “They’re coming again.”
“We’ve been ready for this present day for 734 days. We can not think about being anyplace else this morning,” mentioned Laurence Ytzhak, 54.
The deal was thrashed out in oblique negotiations behind closed doorways in a convention centre in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort city on the Crimson Sea.
Whereas Arab leaders, together with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, mentioned they hoped the ceasefire would result in a everlasting answer to the Israel-Palestinian battle, there was no indication the talks had been addressing any of the deeper points at stake.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned he would carry the hostages house “with God’s assist”, whereas Hamas has submitted an inventory of Palestinian prisoners it desires launched from Israeli jails within the first section.
The checklist names 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 others arrested by Israel for the reason that battle started, in line with the Hamas supply.
Excessive-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti – from Hamas’s rival, the Fatah motion – is amongst these the group wished to see launched, in line with Egyptian state-linked media.
Nevertheless, when requested by a journalist at a briefing whether or not Israel had agreed to launch Barghouti, authorities spokeswoman Bedrosian mentioned: “I can let you know at this cut-off date that he won’t be a part of this launch.”
TALKS UNDER SHADOW OF OCT 7 ANNIVERSARY
The talks had been happening beneath the shadow of the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault, which resulted within the deaths of 1,219 folks, principally civilians, in line with an AFP tally primarily based on official Israeli figures.
Militants additionally took 251 folks hostage into Gaza, the place 47 stay, together with 25 the Israeli navy says are useless.
Israel’s retaliatory marketing campaign in Gaza has killed at the least 67,183 folks, in line with the well being ministry within the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.
The info doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants however signifies that greater than half of the useless are girls and youngsters.
Gaza’s civil defence company, a rescue drive working beneath Hamas’s authority, reported a number of strikes on the territory after the announcement of the deal.
Stress to finish the battle has escalated massively in latest weeks, and a UN probe final month accused Israel of genocide, a cost the federal government rejected as “distorted and false”.
Hamas has additionally been accused of committing battle crimes and crimes towards humanity.
International locations world wide welcomed the deal, with UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres saying, “The combating should cease as soon as and for all.”
