Israel-Hamas ceasefire live: Netanyahu says Israel will sign Gaza deal after last-minute issues resolved – UK Times

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said his security cabinet would convene today to vote on the ceasefire before the full government follows suit on Saturday, according to reports.

Once approved, the ceasefire in Gaza is expected to begin on Sunday afternoon.

Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams reportedly signed a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Doha early Friday after final roadblocks stalling the finalisation of the deal were cleared.

Israel has targeted a site in Gaza where a female hostage is being held after a ceasefire deal was reached, spokesperson Abu Obeida said on Thursday.

“After announcing the agreement, the enemy army targeted a place where one of the female prisoners of the first stage of the ceasefire deal was located,” Obeida said.

“Any aggression and shelling at this stage by the enemy could turn the freedom of a prisoner into a tragedy.”

The report has not been independently verified.

The total number of Palestinians killed now stands at 46,788, the Gaza health ministry has said.

Meanwhile, it added that 110,453 have been injured, since Israel launched its war on Gaza following Hamas’ attack on the country on 7 October.

The death toll is likely to increase as bodies are found under the rubble, while some estimates, which include the impact of starvation and disease, have suggested the toll is higher than 46,000.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed at least 72 Palestinians yesterday even as ceasefire talks with Hamas solidified.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Strip said the toll from yesterday’s strikes only includes bodies brought to two hospitals in Gaza City and the actual toll is likely higher.

“Yesterday was a bloody day, and today is bloodier,” said Zaher al-Wahedi, a health ministry official.

The Israeli military said it had struck approximately 50 militant targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launch sites.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip has been reached, after his office had said earlier there were last-minute snags in finalizing a ceasefire that would pause 15 months of war.

Netanyahu said he would convene his security cabinet later today and then the government will approve the long-awaited hostage deal.

Netanyahu’s pre-dawn statement appeared to clear the way for Israeli approval of the deal, which would pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and see dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The deal would also allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to the remains of their homes in Gaza

‘Only when the last hostage is back can we start rebuilding Gaza’ – cousin of October 7 victim

Udi Goren, the cousin of a civil engineer killed in the October 7 attack, says the only way to alleviate suffering on both sides is to bring back the hostages.

“It doesn’t matter where you stand politically, if you affiliate with Israel, if you care for the Palestinians, but we must realise that if you want to end suffering on both sides, the key, the first domino stone that would set this process, is bringing back all the hostages,” he said.

“Because only when the last hostage is back would hostilities end, would the war end, would we be able to start rebuilding Gaza.

“Their suffering might hopefully be finally alleviated, and Israelis would find solace and some comfort with having this knife off of our throats and start rebuilding within our own society.”

The ceasefire in Gaza represents a “great victory” for the Palestinian resistance, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday, warning against any possible breach by Israel.

“The end of the war and the imposition of a ceasefire on the Zionist regime (Israel) is a clear and great victory for Palestine and a greater defeat for the Zionist regime,” a statement by the Guards said.

Iran and its allied non-state armed groups in the region such as Yemen’s Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have supported Hamas throughout the conflict.

“The resistance remains alive, thriving, strong and has deeper faith in the divine promise of liberating the al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem,” the Guards said, warning against any breach of the ceasefire by Israel and saying they maintain field preparations to confront “new wars and crimes.”

An American non-profit working in the Middle East said Israel should bear the primary cost of reconstructing and rehabilitating the Gaza Strip as it was responsible for the devastation in the enclave.

“If the world again allows Israel to externalise the costs of its crimes in Gaza, nothing will dissuade it from repeating its belligerence and abuses,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now.

Raed Jarrar, the group’s advocacy director, added: “A ceasefire agreement does not mean that Israeli war criminals who orchestrated this genocide are off the hook, and we will continue to demand accountability for their crimes.”

“The international community should also hold US officials in the Biden administration accountable for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity with their ongoing support of Israel’s war machine.”

Hamas hailed its ceasefire with Israel as the result of “the legendary resilience of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip”.

“The agreement is a milestone in the conflict with the enemy, on the path to achieving our people’s goals of liberation and return,” the group said in a statement.

Khalil al-Hayyah, the acting head of Hamas’s political bureau and chief negotiator, said the ceasefire deal represents a “new phase” which will focus on Gaza rebuilding and recovering.

“We are able – with god’s help first – and then with the help of our brothers, siblings, loved ones and supporters, to rebuild Gaza again, alleviate the pain, heal the wounds,” he said in a speech shared online by Hamas.

He also congratulated the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who will be released in the first phase of the deal: “Our heroic prisoners have an appointment with the dawn of freedom.”

Just days before US president Joe Biden is set to leave office, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire deal after a last-minute “breakthrough” in talks.

The Qatari prime minister announced the three-phase agreement, which is set to take effect on Sunday.

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis large crowds of joyful Palestinians have taken to the streets, with people cheering and honking car horns.

Agreement was reached after the Qatari prime minister separately met Hamas negotiators Israeli negotiators in his office, a source close to the negotiations told The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley.

Alexander Butler and Tom Watling report: