CAIRO (AP) – A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will take effect at 8:30 a.m. local time Sunday (6:30 a.m. Japan time), mediator Qatar announced Saturday. As families of hostages held in Gaza wait for news of their loved ones, Palestinians are preparing: Humanitarian organizations rushed to provide a surge of aid to accommodate the released detainees.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later warned that the ceasefire could not proceed unless Israel received the names of the hostages to be released as agreed. His statement came almost three hours after Israel expected to receive the names Hamas had planned to offer to Qatar as a mediator. There was no immediate reaction from Hamas or Qatar.
A flurry of activity and new emotions as Israel’s cabinet approves a cease-fire deal overnight in an unusual meeting during the Jewish Sabbath, leaving relatives wondering whether the hostages will be returned alive or dead. waves were triggered.
The pause in the 15-month war is a step towards ending the deadliest and most destructive fighting ever between Israel and the militant group Hamas, and more than a year after the only ceasefire was reached. That’s true.
The first phase of the ceasefire will last 42 days, with negotiations for the much more difficult second phase scheduled to begin in just over two weeks. Six weeks later, Israel’s security cabinet will decide how to proceed.
Israeli airstrikes continued on Saturday, and the Gaza Health Ministry said 23 bodies had been taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours.
“What is this ceasefire that kills us hours before it starts?” asked Abdallah al-Aqad, the brother of a woman killed in an airstrike in the southern city of Khan Yunis. Health officials said a couple and two children, ages 2 and 7, were killed.
Sirens rang throughout south-central Israel, and the military announced it had intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Gaza Strip have stepped up attacks in recent weeks in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians there.
In a post on X, Qatar’s foreign minister advised Palestinians and others to be cautious and wait for instructions from authorities when the ceasefire takes effect.
“The first thing I do is go to the house and check,” said Mohamed Mahdi, a father of two who fled Gaza City’s Zaytun district. He also looks forward to seeing his family in southern Gaza, but “I still worry that one of us might be martyred before we can meet.”
The first phase of the ceasefire will see the release of 33 Gaza hostages over six weeks in exchange for 737 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israel’s Ministry of Justice published a list of prisoners, all of whom are young men or women.
According to the ceasefire plan approved by the Israeli Cabinet, the fighting will begin at 4pm on Sunday (4pm Japan time). According to the plan, three living female hostages will be returned on the first day, four on the seventh day, and the remaining 26 over the next five weeks. During each exchange, Palestinian prisoners of war are released by Israel after the hostages arrive safely.
1,167 Gaza residents who were not involved in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that sparked the war are also scheduled to be released. All women and children under the age of 19 in the Gaza Strip held by Israel will be released at this stage.
All Palestinian prisoners convicted of the deadly attack will be deported to Gaza or abroad, some for three years and some permanently, and barred from returning to Israel or the West Bank.
The remaining hostages in Gaza, including male soldiers, are expected to be released in the second phase following negotiations in the first phase. Hamas said it would not release the remaining prisoners unless there is a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal.
The first phase of the ceasefire also calls for Israeli forces to withdraw to a buffer zone about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) wide along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel.
This will allow many displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including in Gaza City and the largely isolated and devastated northern Gaza. With most of Gaza’s population sheltered in large, crude tent camps, Palestinians are desperately trying to return to their homeland, even though much of it is destroyed or badly damaged. There is.
Food, medicine and other humanitarian aid should also surge in Gaza. On Friday, trucks were lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border entering Gaza.
Two Egyptian government ministers arrived in northern Sinai on Saturday to supervise preparations for transporting relief goods through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings and to receive injured patients, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
The ceasefire plan approved by the Israeli cabinet states that all trucks entering Gaza will be subject to Israeli inspection.
The Hamas-led attack on October 7 left around 1,200 people dead and around 250 captured. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
Israel fought back, killing more than 46,000 Palestinians, local health officials said. Officials do not distinguish between civilians and militants, but say more than half of the dead are women and children.
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Mednick reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Joe Federman in Jerusalem contributed.
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