Israeli ministers meet to finalise Gaza ceasefire

Israeli government ministers will begin meeting to approve the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire and the hostage release plan signed with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

An Israeli government spokesman had previously said the ceasefire would come into force within 24 hours of the government meeting.

After these 24 hours, the hostages held in Gaza would be released within 72 hours.

Thursday’s government meeting was to follow the just-concluded meeting of Israel’s security cabinet.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas signed an agreement to cease fire and release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

This is the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s attempt to end the two-year war in Gaza that has roiled the Middle East.

Both Israelis and Palestinians rejoiced after the agreement was announced; This is the biggest step yet to end the war that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.

Officials on both sides confirmed they signed the agreement following indirect talks held in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Under the agreement, hostilities will end, Israel will partially withdraw from Gaza, and Hamas will release all hostages it captured in the war-precipitating attack in exchange for hundreds of prisoners held by Israel.

The United Nations plans to increase the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza during the first 60 days of the Gaza ceasefire, a senior UN official said on Thursday.

Fleets of trucks carrying food and medical aid will be allowed into Gaza to rescue civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom are sheltering in tents after Israeli forces destroyed homes and leveled entire cities.

According to reports in the Israeli media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet met before the meeting of his entire government, which is expected to approve the agreement.

Netanyahu said that the ceasefire will come into force after it is approved.

If fully implemented, the agreement would bring the two sides closer together than previous efforts to stop a war that has escalated into a regional conflict, involving Iran, Yemen and Lebanon and deepening Israel’s international isolation.

A lot can still go wrong.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned on Thursday that if Hamas is not ultimately disbanded, his Jewish Power party will try to topple Netanyahu’s government.

At the White House, Trump said he believed the agreement would lead to “lasting peace.”

Trump said he would try to go there to attend the signing ceremony in Egypt.

Israel’s Knesset parliament has asked Trump to speak, and the president has said he plans to do so if requested.

Other steps in Trump’s 20-point plan have not yet been discussed, including how the fragmented Gaza Strip will be governed once the fighting ends and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has so far rejected Israeli demands to disarmament.

However, the announcement of the end of the fighting and the return of the hostages was greeted with joy.

“Thank God for the ceasefire, for the end of bloodshed and killings,” Abdul Majeed Abd Rabbo said in Khan Younis, south of Gaza.

Einav Zaugauker, whose son Matan was one of the last hostages, rejoiced in Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostages Square, where the families of those captured in the Hamas attack had gathered for a long time.

“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t explain what I’m feeling… this is crazy,” he said, speaking in the red glow of a celebratory fire.