Ceasefire to go into effect within 24 hours of Israel’s cabinet ratifying the deal tonight, says Israeli government.
srael’s government has confirmed signing the final draft of an agreement on phase one of a ceasefire deal with Hamas aimed at ending the Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed more than 67,190 Palestinians in two years.
Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters on Thursday that the signing took place earlier that morning in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, following three days of intensive negotiations in the city.
An Israeli security cabinet meeting to approve the deal began later on Thursday, according to local media reports, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to have enough votes to approve the plan.
The agreement – covering the first phase of United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war – calls for the release of the 48 remaining Israeli captives in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, within 72 hours of the deal being finalised, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. It also requires Israel to pull back its troops to “an agreed-upon line”, according to Trump.
The Israeli spokesperson said the ceasefire would go into effect within 24 hours of when Israel’s cabinet votes to ratify the agreement.
The spokesperson said that after the 24-hour period ends, the 72-hour window for the Israeli captives’ release would begin.
The spokesperson also stressed that Israel does not plan to release the imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti as part of the exchange, and claimed Israel would still control more than half of Gaza after moving its forces back as required under the deal.
Trump said the Israeli captives will be released from Gaza on “Monday or Tuesday”, and that he hopes to attend a ceasefire signing ceremony in Egypt.
While the full details of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, preliminarily approved by Israel and Hamas, remain unclear, Trump has said his plan will bring “everlasting peace” and wide-scale reconstruction in Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel’s two-year war.
“You have tremendous wealth in that part of the world by certain countries, and just a small part of that, what they make, will do wonders for Gaza,” Trump said, without giving details of a specific reconstruction plan.
“I think you’re going to see some tremendous countries stepping up and putting up a lot of money and taking care of things,” he said.
In his remarks, Trump did say that disarmament would be part of the second phase of the deal, with Israel insisting that Hamas must give up its weapons.
“I’m not going to talk about that because you sort of know what phase two is. But… there will be disarming,” Trump told reporters, adding that there would also be “pullbacks” by Israeli forces.
‘Serious disagreements’
As Trump hailed the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces continued to attack areas of Gaza. At least 10 Palestinians were killed and 49 others were wounded in Israeli attacks, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on Thursday.
Asem Alnabih, a spokesman for the Gaza City municipality, said “the reality on the ground has not changed” despite the agreement on the first phase of the ceasefire.
“Therefore, congratulations and celebrations may not be the best course of action right now, especially since blood is still being shed in Gaza,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from central Gaza’s az-Zawayda, said there has been “lots of aerial activity across the Gaza Strip”.
“It’s giving people a sense that nothing is finalised yet,” he said, stressing that the humanitarian situation continues to be dire as aid is still being denied entry into the famine-struck enclave.
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara also noted that while the “the initial phase of the initial phase” of the deal appears to be moving forward, “serious disagreements” remain between Israel and Hamas. These include details on the timing and scope of Israel’s withdrawal, the makeup of the post-war administration for the Gaza Strip and the fate of Hamas, he said.
A second phase of the deal, still to be negotiated, is expected to involve a full Israeli withdrawal, Hamas’s disarmament, and the establishment of new security and governance arrangements in Gaza.
‘Families in Gaza cheering’
Meanwhile, news of the ceasefire agreement has been welcomed across the world, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying the agency is ready to “scale up” aid delivery and “advance recovery and reconstruction efforts”.
For Gaza, it offers a respite from two years of Israeli attacks and blockades that have killed more than 67,000 people and led to widespread famine, in what prominent scholars and a UN inquiry say amounts to a genocide.
“Families were cheering once they heard the news of the ceasefire after more than two years of devastation, destruction, displacement and broken promises,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Gaza. “People are desperately waiting to be reunited with loved ones and even to have a moment to mourn what they have lost.”
But some analysts cautioned that the agreement is a far cry from any kind of lasting peace guarantee.
“This is only an agreement on phase one. This is an exchange of captives, this is stopping the large-scale killing that has been going on in Gaza and allowing some more humanitarian aid in,” Middle East political analyst Omar Baddar told Al Jazeera. “But there’s no telling whether there’s going to be a resumption of this genocide … and is Israel really going to allow Gaza to be rebuilt? I think that’s a really big question.”
Source: Aljazeera
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