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The cease fire between Israel and Hamas is poised to begin on Sunday, after the Israeli security cabinet on Friday endorsed the deal covering it and the release of the hostages and asked the full government to agree to the terms.
The start of the ceasefire will likely allow the release of three Israeli civilian women hostages on the first day, in exchange for 90 Palestinian children and prisoners. Those terms were included in the cease-fire agreement that President Biden unveiled in May. Biden he said on Wednesday the deal coincided with his spring proposal.
“After an assessment of all diplomatic, security and humanitarian aspects, and while understanding that the proposed agreement supports the achievement of the objectives of the war, the Security Cabinet has recommended that the Government approve the framework proposed,” the Prime Minister of Israel reported. said in a statement published on Friday on the X social network.
The Israeli government will vote, today Friday, on the agreement. Israel’s Supreme Court is also expected to allow 24 hours for any appeal.
Sunday’s start to a ceasefire would start the clock on what is expected to be six weeks of calm, during which Hamas and the Israeli army pause fighting and Israeli ground troops begin withdrawing from the populated areas of the Gaza Strip.
The start of the ceasefire would mark a major foreign policy victory for both President Biden and President-elect Trump as they transition between the two administrations. While Biden led painstaking efforts to draft the deal’s detailed terms and rally international support behind it, Trump pushed for it to cross the finish line. That included sending his pick for Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff to put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward with the deal.
It was a remarkable example cooperation between the Biden and Trump teams, with a senior Biden administration official calling Witkoff’s participation “pretty effective.”
But it is unclear how the Trump team will proceed to maintain the full ceasefire agreement, which requires more indirect negotiations between Israeli and Hamas officials for a permanent end to the war.
Under the terms of the agreement, Israeli and Hamas officials are expected to meet again on the 16th day of the ceasefire and work out the details to move to a second phase.
The second phase will constitute a permanent ceasefire, but must be agreed to allow the exchange of Palestinian hostages and prisoners.
Biden, in remarks Wednesday, said the first phase of the ceasefire is expected to hold while negotiators talk to each other about reaching the second phase, even if it extends beyond the deadline of six weeks
But Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fl.), said the new administration will support Israel if it says it must restart military operations against Hamas.
Still, the pause in fighting is expected to bring relief to nearly 2 million Palestinians who have endured 15 months of shelling amid Israel’s war against Hamas. The war began after Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
Approximately 1,200 people were killed that day and 250 were taken hostage. A week-long ceasefire in late November 2023 allowed the release of around 100 hostages.
And while the Israeli military has eliminated much of Hamas’s top leadership, including the so-called architect of October 7, Yahya Sinwar, more than half of the 46,000 Palestinians killed during the war were women and children, and officials Americans say Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost.
Israeli forces have been accused of war crimes and called genocide by humanitarian organizations. Israel, backed by the US, rejects these claims and blames Hamas for embedding itself among civilians and endangering them.
US, Egyptian and Qatari officials, who brokered the ceasefire deal, have put incentives in place for Hamas and Israel to adhere to the deal.
Hamas is expected to secure the release of 30 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails for every hostage it releases. Hamas holds about 98 hostages, living and dead, including three living Americans, the remains of four dead Americans, two Israelis who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers since a 2014 war between Israel and Israel. Hamas.
Among the group to be released in a second phase of the ceasefire is an American-Israeli, Edan Alexander, who was serving in the Israel Defense Forces when he was abducted on 7 October.
Humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is expected to increase during the ceasefire, allowing for the rehabilitation of civilian infrastructure, including electricity, water, sanitation, telecommunications and roads. Supplies for civil protection, debris removal and debris cleanup will also be delivered. At least 60,000 temporary housing units and 200,000 tents are listed as needed by people who lost their homes.
Updated at 9:26am EST
