Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says a “deal to release the hostages” has been agreed.
Netanyahu had delayed a cabinet vote to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal due on Thursday, accusing Hamas of seeking last-minute changes to the deal.
On Friday morning, the prime minister’s office said he had been informed by the negotiating team that agreements on the deal had been reached.
It added that the security cabinet would meet later on Friday to ratify the deal before full government approval is sought. The families of the hostages have been informed.
Representatives of Israel, Hamas, the United States and Qatar have officially signed the agreement in Doha, Israeli media reports.
The Armistice Agreement was first published on Wednesday by brokers USA and Qatar.
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, said the deal would take effect on Sunday, pending Israeli government approval.
At the time, Netanyahu said the final details of the deal were still being worked out, but he thanked Biden for “promoting” it.
Netanyahu then delayed a cabinet vote to approve the deal on Thursday, accusing Hamas of trying to “extort last-minute concessions”.
Hamas said it was committed to the deal, but the BBC understands it sought to add some of its members to the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released under the deal.
Although Israeli negotiators have agreed to the deal, which follows months of negotiations, it cannot be implemented until it is approved by the Security Cabinet and the government.
Two hard-right ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who are both members of the security cabinet and oppose the deal, have said they will resign in protest.
But they have signaled they will not join the opposition – to bring down the government – just yet, as long as the war resumes in six weeks, when phase one of the ceasefire and hostage release deal ends.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said he expects the ceasefire to start on Sunday as planned with the release of the first three Israeli hostages.
Many Palestinians and families of Israeli hostages celebrated the news of the ceasefire after it was first announced.
But the war on the ground in Gaza had not let upwith Israeli strikes killing 101 people since the deal was announced, including 27 children, Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.
Attacks have been carried out on 50 targets in Gaza since the agreement was announced, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency said on Thursday.
In the first six-week phase of the deal, 33 hostages – including women, children and the elderly – will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli troops would also withdraw to the east, away from densely populated areas of Gaza.
Displaced Palestinians would be able to begin returning to their homes, and hundreds of aid trucks would be allowed access to the territory every day.
Negotiations on the second phase – which would see the release of the remaining hostages, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops and a return to “sustainable calm” – would begin on the 16th.
The third and final phase will involve the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies and the rebuilding of Gaza – something that could take years.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas – which is banned as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and others – in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were killed. taken hostage.
More than 46,788 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have also been displaced, there is widespread destruction and severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter as aid agencies struggle to get aid to those in need.
Israel says 94 of the hostages are still being held by Hamas, 34 of whom are presumed dead. There are four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom have died.