Israel-Gaza ceasefire live: Truce to begin on Sunday as Gaza strikes reported hours after deal announced – UK Times

Israel intensified strikes on Gaza hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced, residents and authorities in the Strip said.

Heavy Israeli bombardment, especially in Gaza City, killed 32 people last night, medics in the Hamas-run enclave said. The strikes continued early this morning and destroyed houses in Rafah in southern Gaza, Nuseirat in central Gaza and in northern Gaza, residents said.

Israel’s military made no immediate comment and there were no reports of Hamas attacks on Israel after the ceasefire announcement.

UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has also been speaking after news emerged of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

“After months of devastating bloodshed and countless lives lost, this is the long-overdue news that the Israeli and Palestinian people have desperately been waiting for,” Mr Starmer said. “They have borne the brunt of this conflict – triggered by the brutal terrorists of Hamas, who committed the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust on October 7th, 2023.

“The hostages, who were brutally ripped from their homes on that day and held captive in unimaginable conditions ever since, can now finally return to their families. But we should also use this moment to pay tribute to those who won’t make it home – including the British people who were murdered by Hamas. We will continue to mourn and remember them.

“For the innocent Palestinians whose homes turned into a warzone overnight and the many who have lost their lives, this ceasefire must allow for a huge surge in humanitarian aid, which is so desperately needed to end the suffering in Gaza.

“And then our attention must turn to how we secure a permanently better future for the Israeli and Palestinian people – grounded in a two-state solution that will guarantee security and stability for Israel, alongside a sovereign and viable Palestine state.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a ceasefire agreement with Hamas is still not complete and the final details are being worked out.

Netanyahu’s statement comes hours after the US and Qatar announced the deal, which would pause the devastating 15-month war in Gaza and clear the way for dozens of hostages to go home.

He said that Hamas was objecting to a part of the agreement that gave Israel the ability to veto the release of certain Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas was trying to dictate which Palestinian prisoners would be released, Netanyahu said. He said he told Israeli negotiators to stand firm on the earlier agreement.

US president Joe Biden has said the Palestinian people have “gone through hell” in the past 15 months, soon after a ceasefire deal was confirmed between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking outside The White House, he said: “The Palestinian people have gone through hell. Too many innocent people have died. Too many communities have been destroyed. With this deal, the people of Gaza can finally recover and rebuild.”

Yahya Sinwar, then the leader of the militant group that rules Gaza, is reported to have considered the tens of thousands of Gazans killed by Israel to be “necessary sacrifices”. He’s now among the dead, but would no doubt feel nothing for the 46,700 others who have perished – according to the Palestinian health ministry – under Israel’s air, land and sea attacks.

The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

A truce and hostage deal was reached after the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, met Hamas negotiators and then separately the Israelis. Qatar has been a key mediator in seeking to end the conflict. President-elect Donald Trump was quick to hail the end of the war, writing on Truth Social: “We have a deal for the hostages.”

The Qatari prime minister later confirmed the deal in a delayed press conference. He revealed that it would go into effect on Sunday and said its success would rely on Israel and Hamas “acting in good faith in order to ensure that this agreement does not collapse”.

The Independent’s chief international correspondent Bel Trew and world affairs editor Sam Kiley report:

Sagui Dekel-Chen was kidnapped from Nir Oz kibbutz during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that kicked off the conflict.

His father, Hebrew University of Jerusalem history professor Jonathan Dekel-Chen, told The Independent he still has very little information about the fate of his son.

“I’m a parent of a hostage who is completely in the dark,” he said. “We don’t have solid information about Sagui or any of the other hostages, who is alive or who is not.”

Hamas and Israel have reached a ceasefire deal brokered by the United States with the aid of the Egyptian and Qatari governments, ending 15 months of violence that began with the October 7, 2023, terror attacks, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday afternoon.

Speaking from the White House not long after news of the agreement became public, Biden said it was “a very good afternoon” because he could announce the deal had finally been reached. The inking of a ceasefire deal brings to a halt more than a year of war in Gaza, during which the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100,000 wounded.

Our White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg reports: