Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza to take effect on Sunday morning
The ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will take effect at 08:30am (06:30 GMT) on Sunday, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced in a post on X.
“Based on the agreement between the parties … the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8:30am on Sunday. We advise our brothers to take precautions, exercise the utmost caution, and await instructions from official sources,” spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said in a tweet on Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli government ratified the agreement after meeting for more than six hours, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement.
However, Netanyahu said later that his country would not proceed with the ceasefire until it receives a list of the 33 captives who are expected to be released in the first phase of the deal.
“Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement. The sole responsibility lies with Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The deal was approved after more than 460 days of war in which Israeli forces killed more than 46,788 Palestinians and wounded 110,453. It would see the release of 33 captives held in Gaza over the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The remainder, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first.
Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.
“All eyes are now on Gaza to see what the Israeli military is going to do in these final hours, because historically, before any sort of ceasefire deal, the Israeli military pounds the Gaza Strip with all of its might,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Jordan.
“There’s going to be a lot of fear and anxiety.”
Leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, congratulated the Palestinians for reaching the deal, saying it proved the “persistence of resistance” against Israel.
“This deal, which was unchanged from what was proposed in May 2024, proves the persistence of resistance groups, which took what they wanted while Israel was not able to take what it sought,” he said.
In November, Hezbollah and Israel reached a ceasefire deal in a conflict parallel to Israel’s war on Gaza.
The agreement
Under the deal, the three-stage ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase when captives held by Hamas will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli custody.
Thirty-three Israeli captives, including women, children, men over 50 and ill and wounded, are to be freed in this phase. In return, Israel will release nearly 1,900 Palestinians, including females and children, as well as hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza in detention since the start of the war.
