UPDATE (Jan. 18, 2024, 8:54 a.m. ET): The Israeli Cabinet has approved the ceasefire deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early Saturday. The agreement is set to take effect on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET), according to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry. Under the deal, the Israeli Ministry of Justice will release more than 700 Palestinian detained in Israeli jails and 1,167 Palestinians who were detained in Gaza during the war but who did not participate in the Oct. 7 attacks.
Less than 24 hours after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was announced, Israel delayed a cabinet meeting to approve the agreement as its military continued to attack Gaza, killing at least 77 people, according to local officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of creating a “last-minute crisis” by “reneging” on parts of the agreement, though he did not offer any details about his claim. Hamas has said it was “committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators.”
Meanwhile, Israel has continued to strike the besieged Palestinian enclave, killing dozens since the deal was announced, Gaza’s Civil Defense said.
After more than 15 months of destructive fighting that local health officials say has killed more than 46,000 people in Gaza, Israel and Hamas landed on a ceasefire deal on Wednesday.
The agreement, announced by Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani at a news conference, is set to go into effect on Sunday pending the approval of the Israeli Cabinet.
The deal is expected to take place in three phases. Under the first stage, which is set to take place over six weeks, Israeli forces are to withdraw from populated areas in Gaza and be stationed along the border, allowing for a hostage swap and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes. Hamas will release 33 hostages — two of whom are Americans — including all women, children and elderly people in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, Al Thani said. Increased humanitarian aid and basic supplies will also be allowed to enter Gaza during this phase.
Negotiations over the second and third phases of the deal will take place during the six weeks scheduled for the first, according to Al Thani.
The Qatari prime minister stressed the delicate period between the announcement of the deal and its implementation. He underscored the need for both Israel and Hamas to commit to all three stages being carried out.
“We hope that over the next few days there will not be any aggressions or any military operations,” he said.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim earlier confirmed to NBC News that the group had agreed to a deal, adding that the same terms had been on the table as early as last May. “We are very happy to reach a deal today to stop the aggression against our people, but unfortunately we were able to reach the same deal last May,” Naim said.
President Joe Biden praised the deal in remarks on Wednesday afternoon, although at one point he mistakenly referred to Hamas as Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.
“It’s a very good afternoon, because at long last I can announce a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas after more than 15 months of conflict that began with Hezbollah’s brutal massacre on October the 7th,” he said.
During phase two, Biden added, negotiators will work toward “a permanent end to the war.”
The agreement on Wednesday brought immediate relief and hope to Palestinians in Gaza who have been living in inhumane conditions, though celebrations were dimmed by continuous deadly airstrikes by Israeli forces. Families of the Israeli hostages who have agonized over the fate of their loved ones for more than a year also expressed mixed feelings and tentative optimism about the return of all the hostages. The families of American hostages held in Gaza said in a statement that they are “deeply grateful that there is finally an agreement” to release their loved ones and thanked Biden and President-elect Donald Trump for their efforts in landing a deal. “The coming days and weeks will be just as painful for our families as the entirety of our loved ones’ horrific ordeals,” they added. “That is why we ask all parties to stay committed to this agreement, every phase until it is fully implemented and everyone has been returned.” Israel and Hamas, who have been in conflict for decades, have engaged in a brutal war since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack that killed 1,200 people. Israel subsequently launched an indiscriminate military campaign in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of people, destroying critical infrastructure and imposing a severe blockade of essential supplies and humanitarian aid into the Strip. Israel has repeatedly said that it is adhering to the rules of war and has taken all possible measures to limit harm to civilians, but investigations by human rights groups, humanitarian organizations and news outlets have found a pattern of disproportionate attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza. In December 2024, Amnesty International said it concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an accusation that the IDF has called “entirely baseless and fail to account for the operational realities faced by the IDF.” Amnesty International also determined that some of Hamas’ actions “constituted war crimes under international law.” Multiple previous rounds of ceasefire talks have fallen apart, save for a hostage exchange deal in November 2023 that saw a brief pause in fighting between Hamas and Israel. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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