We’re closing this blog now and moving our live coverage to another blog shortly. It’s just gone 7.50am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv – here’s a recap of the key developments:
The Israeli government has ratified a ceasefire deal to exchange dozens of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails and pause the 15-month war in Gaza for an initial six weeks. Under the deal, approved after a cabinet meeting that ended early on Saturday, a six-week ceasefire will take effect on Sunday. However, key questions remain, including the names of the 33 hostages to be released during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire and who among them is still alive, Lorenzo Tondo and Bethan McKernan report. “The government has approved the hostage return plan”, the office of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. The agreement, which was earlier approved by the security cabinet, came despite an unexpected delay on Friday that sparked fears that last-minute disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group might scuttle the agreement.
Lead US negotiator Brett McGurk said after the Israeli cabinet approval that the plan was moving forward on track. The White House expected the ceasefire to start on Sunday morning, with three female hostages to be released to Israel on Sunday afternoon through the Red Cross.
Under the deal, the three-stage ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase when hostages held by Hamas will be exchanged for prisoners detained by Israel. Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, and men over 50, were due to be freed in this phase. Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under 19 in Israeli jails by the end of the first phase. French president Emmanuel Macron said French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi were in the first group of hostages to be freed by Hamas.
The ceasefire deal was bitterly opposed by some hardliners in the Israeli cabinet, with media reports saying 24 ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition government voted in favour of the deal while eight opposed it. National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved but said he would not bring down the government. His fellow hardliner Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, also threatened to quit the government if it did not go back to war to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire. The Israeli high court is still scheduled to hear petitions against elements of the ceasefire deal but is widely expected not to intervene.
Negotiators from Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel had agreed on “all necessary arrangements to implement” the Gaza ceasefire deal, Egyptian media reported. During Friday’s talks, which reportedly ended “on a positive note”, negotiators agreed to form a joint operations room in Cairo to “ensure effective coordination” and compliance with the truce terms, it said.
Israel’s justice ministry released a list of 95 Palestinians held in Israeli prisoners to be freed in the first exchange, including 25 male prisoners, all under the age of 21, and 70 female prisoners. One of the most well-known individuals on the list is Palestinian parliament member and feminist lawmaker Khalida Jarrar.
At least 115 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday, while medics said another five were killed in an Israeli airstrike early on Saturday in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis. Gaza’s health ministry said at least 46,876 people had been killed and 110,642 injured in more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume “full responsibility” in postwar Gaza, president Mahmoud Abbas said in his first statement since the ceasefire deal was announced. This would include the return of displaced people, providing basic services, crossings management and reconstruction of the war-torn territory, a statement from the Palestinian presidency said.
The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, welcomed the ceasefire but warned that it was “only a starting point”. Lazzarini on Friday called for a “rapid, uninterrupted and unhindered” humanitarian access to the “tremendous suffering” in Gaza. He also noted that the Israeli Knesset’s legislation barring the UN agency would come into effect in less than two weeks, warning that it would be “catastrophic” for Gaza. UK lawmakers said the Israeli ban on Unrwa threatened to undermine efforts for peace in the Middle East.
UN secretary general António Guterres urged an end to Israel’s “continued occupation” and “military operations” in south Lebanon, after a November ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
Aid agencies have warned of obstacles for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order. A UN official called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors”. On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.
The UN announced new actions to counter the surge in antisemitism, including encouraging governments to enforce laws against hate crimes and discrimination. Miguel Moratinos, the head of the UN alliance of civilisations, which developed the plan, said he was alarmed at the surge in antisemitic incidents online and offline, citing attacks on synagogues and religious sites including after the October 2023 Hamas attacks in southern Israel.
International criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, defended his decision to bring war crimes allegations against Israel’s prime minister, saying Israel had made “no real effort” to investigate the allegations itself. He told Reuters he stood by his decision over the arrest warrant despite a vote last week by the US House of Representatives to sanction the court in protest, a move he described as “unwanted and unwelcome”.
A former US intelligence official pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified documents detailing Israel’s plans for military attacks on Iran. Asif Rahman, who worked for the CIA since 2016, faces up to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in a federal court in Virginia to two counts of wilful retention and transmission of national defence information.
UN announces new plan to counter antisemitism
The United Nations has announced new actions to counter the surge in antisemitism, including encouraging governments to enforce laws against hate crimes and discrimination.
Miguel Moratinos, the head of the UN alliance of civilisations, which developed the plan, said he was alarmed at the surge in antisemitic incidents online and offline, the Associated Press reports. He cited attacks on synagogues and religious sites, including after the October 2023 Hamas attacks in southern Israel which set off the war in Gaza.
“Unfortunately, our efforts, like those of national governments, have not been sufficient to curb the drivers of antisemitism,” Moratinos said on Friday.
He said new actors involved in social transformations in technology, science and the economy must be mobilised “to address online and offline hate speech while upholding human rights”.
The UN plan calls for the establishment of a working group to monitor and evaluate the impact of policies and measures to address antisemitism in the UN. It includes training for all UN personnel on antisemitism and Holocaust denial – and how to fight them.
Outside the UN, the plan encourages governments and organisations to denounce antisemitism swiftly and enhance education about the Holocaust and antisemitism. It also encourages “zero tolerance policies” for antisemitism.
The UN has worked to counter antisemitism but the 193-member global organisation has been accused of being antisemitic, including by US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador, Elise Stefanik, who has called the UN a “den of antisemitism” that she intends to confront.
Updated
Israel’s justice ministry has said 737 prisoners and detainees will be freed as part of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal approved on Saturday.
In a statement on its website, quoted by Agence France-Presse, the ministry said “the government approves” the “release [of] 737 prisoners and detainees” currently in the custody of the prison service.
As we have reported, under the first phase of the truce deal, which is to last 42 days, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women (including female soldiers) and men aged over 50, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Updated
Israel says 737 prisoners to be freed in truce deal's first phase – report
Israel says 737 prisoners are to be released in phase one of the Gaza truce deal, Agence France-Presse had just reported.
We’ll have more as it comes to light.
In Tel Aviv, dozens of people gathered in a square on Friday to hear families speak, chanting “you are not alone!”, as relatives and friends of hostages in Gaza waited anxiously for their loved ones to return.
“I’m really happy, but it also breaks my heart, because it’s already been 15 months,” said Yael Danieli, a 60-year-old real estate agent from Tel Aviv who has been active in the campaign to return the hostages.
The square is known as Hostages Square because it’s become a gathering place for families and supporters.
In Israel there has been joy at the hostage and ceasefire deal with Hamas but also anguish over the remaining hostages taken in the militant group’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday falls on Saturday, is the youngest hostage.
Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri had died in an airstrike, but with the Israeli military yet to confirm their deaths, many are clinging to hope.
“I think of them, these two little redheads, and I get shivers,” said 70-year-old Osnat Nyska, whose grandchildren attended nursery with the Bibas brothers.
– Wires
The UN peacekeeping chief says Lebanon’s armed forces have significantly increased their deployment in the south near the border with Israel over the past two months.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix spoke to the UN security council in a video briefing from Beirut on Friday, the Associated Press reports.
He said Lebanese troops have moved into 93 locations in the south since the ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah began on 27 November. That’s up from an estimated 10 locations south of the Litani River at the time of the truce, he said.
As part of the government’s plan to deploy an additional 6,000 troops to the south, Lacroix said, 262 new recruits had arrived, another 673 were undergoing training and an additional 600 were undergoing pre-recruitment screening.
Lacroix echoed UN secretary general António Guterres, who is also visiting Lebanon (see previous post), in urging Israeli forces to withdraw without delay.
The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire gave Israeli forces and Hezbollah two months to leave southern Lebanon and hand over control to the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers.
Lacroix said:
With 10 days until the end of the stated 60-day period for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, however, Israeli demolitions of tunnels, buildings and agricultural land continue.
Some airstrikes have also been reported, as have ongoing violations of Lebanese airspace.
Israel has said its actions are targeting Hezbollah assets and personnel.
Updated
Continuing on Lebanon, UN secretary general António Guterres has been visiting the country and posted a message on social media on Friday evening to the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) saying:
I am so proud of you.
You are not just on the Blue Line, you are on the front line of peace.
In an earlier post, also on X, Guterres said some peacekeepers were injured while carrying out their duties and that “attacks against peacekeepers are completely unacceptable & in breach of international law”.
He said it was an honour to meet Unifil peacekeepers and that “in the face of strikes across the Blue Line, they stood with bravery, dedication and resilience”.
My message to our @UNIFIL_ colleagues in Lebanon:
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 17, 2025
I am so proud of you.
You are not just on the Blue Line, you are on the front line of peace. pic.twitter.com/4lOYyY5T4e
Updated
In Lebanon, French president Emmanuel Macron met the newly elected Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, on Friday and vowed to support the country as it tries to recover from an historic economic crisis and the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war.
Macron’s trip to Lebanon, his first in more than four years, follows a 60-day ceasefire deal that went into effect on 27 November between Israel and Hezbollah which aims to end their war, the Associated Press reports. France helped broker the deal and a French officer is a member of the committee supervising the truce.
Macron, who has been critical of Lebanon’s leadership in the past, said during a joint news conference with Aoun that France would be supporting Lebanon and that he hoped the country’s new government would open “a new era, that of a change in political behaviour, the return of the state to the benefit of all”.
Aoun asked Macron to be a witness that the confidence of the Lebanese people in their country and state had been restored. “The world’s confidence in Lebanon should be also restored,” he said.
The real Lebanon has come back.
Updated
Civilians in Gaza have faced a humanitarian crisis due to hunger, cold and sickness amid the Israel-Hamas war and the ceasefire agreement calls for a surge in assistance.
International organisations have aid trucks lined up on Gaza’s borders to bring in food, fuel, medicine and other vital supplies, Reuters reports.
Palestinian relief agency Unrwa said on Friday that it had 4,000 truckloads of aid – half of which were food – ready to enter the coastal strip.
Palestinians waiting for food in the southern Gaza on Friday said they hoped a truce would mean an end to hours of queuing to fill one plate.
Displaced Palestinian Reeham Sheikh al-Eid said:
I hope it will happen so we’ll be able to cook in our homes and make whatever food we want, without having to go to soup kitchens and exhaust ourselves for three or four hours trying to get [food] – sometimes not even making it home.
Under the ceasefire agreement, aid to Gaza should increase to 600 trucks a day, above the 500 minimum that aid agencies say is needed to contain the territory’s devastating humanitarian crisis.
Updated
As Israel prepares for the return of Hamas-held hostages in Gaza, Israeli medical staff say they’re concerned about how long people have been in captivity.
Six hospitals throughout the country are preparing to receive the hostages, the Associated Press reports.
“Our main concern is the long time ... they are probably held in very, very bad conditions, lack of nutrition, lack of hygiene,” said Dr Hagar Mizrahi, head of the medical directorate at Israel’s health ministry.
About 100 hostages – a mix of civilians and soldiers – remain captive inside Gaza. They include around a dozen foreign nationals from Thailand, Nepal and Tanzania. The military believes at least a third of the remaining hostages – and up to half of them – are dead.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 hostages are set to be released as early as Sunday.
Dr Mizrahi said staff were also preparing to assist people with their mental health and had had training sessions on how to deal with the various situations that could impact the hostages.
Updated
The Israeli military has said troops stationed inside Gaza are preparing for the implementation of the ceasefire, which is expected to begin Sunday.
During the truce, the Israeli military will gradually withdraw from certain locations and routes within the Gaza Strip.
However, the military said it would not allow Palestinian residents to return to areas where Israeli troops were stationed, or near the border with Israel, the Associated Press reports.
Under the deal, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Updated
Three killed in Israeli strike in southern Gaza – medics
Medics in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike early on Saturday killed three people in a tent in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in the territory’s south.
This brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment since the ceasefire and hostage deal was announced on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Lead US negotiator Brett McGurk said the White House expected the ceasefire to start on Sunday morning, with three female hostages to be released to Israel on Sunday afternoon through the Red Cross.
“We have locked down every single detail in this agreement. We are quite confident ... it is ready to be implemented on Sunday,” McGurk said on CNN from the White House.
This is Adam Fulton picking up our live coverage
Updated
The Israeli government has ratified a ceasefire deal to exchange dozens of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails and pause the 15-month war in Gaza for an initial six weeks, writes Lorenzo Tondo and Bethan McKernan.
Under the deal, approved after a cabinet meeting that ended in the early hours of Saturday, a six-week ceasefire will take effect on Sunday, though key questions remain, including the names of the 33 hostages to be released during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire and who among them is still alive.
“The government has approved the hostage return plan”, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
The agreement, which was earlier approved by the security cabinet, came despite an unexpected delay on Friday that sparked fears that last-minute disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group might scuttle the agreement.
Far-right members of the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had threatened to vote against the deal or quit the government, potentially derailing months of work to end the conflict.
The war between Israeli forces and Hamas has razed much of Gaza, killed more than 46,000 people and displaced most of the enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million several times over, according to local authorities.
In Gaza on Friday, Israeli warplanes kept up heavy strikes, and the Palestinian civil emergency service said 116 Palestinians, almost 60 of them women and children, had been killed since the deal was announced on Wednesday.
Under the six-week first phase of the three-stage deal, Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages, including all women, children, and men over 50.
Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under 19 detained in Israeli jails by the end of the first phase.
Netanyahu's office says government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli government has ratified the Gaza ceasefire and hostage return deal after a cabinet meeting that lasted more than six hours and ended in the early hours of Saturday.
Under the deal, bitterly opposed by some cabinet hardliners, a six-week ceasefire is due to start on Sunday with the first of a series of hostage-for-prisoner exchanges that could open the way to ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
Updated
Israeli cabinet 'approves Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal'
Israel’s Cabinet has approved a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages.
Twenty-four ministers voted in favour and eight ministers voted against it, an Axios reporter said on X, citing an Israeli cabinet member.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the key developments:
Israel’s full cabinet has been meeting for more than five hours to consider the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, after the smaller security cabinet voted to approve the deal earlier today. The Israeli high court is still scheduled to hear petitions against elements of the agreement, but it is widely expected not to intervene. Hardline national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who on Thursday threatened to quit the government if it ratified the agreement, urged his allies to stop the deal ahead of the full cabinet meeting.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said he voted for the deal during the security cabinet meeting earlier on Friday. In a Facebook post, Sa’ar wrote that he and fellow Knesset member Ze’ev Elkin would support the deal in the full cabinet meeting. Education minister Yoav Kisch said he voted to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal despite the “heavy price”. “We have an ultimate moral obligation to return our brothers and sisters home,” Kisch said.
More than 115 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday. Since Wednesday night, 116 Palestinians were killed, 62 of them women and children, said a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency. Gaza’s health ministry said at least 46,876 people have been killed and 110,642 injured in more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume “full responsibility” in postwar Gaza, president Mahmoud Abbas said in his first statement since a ceasefire deal was announced. This would include the return of displaced people, providing basic services, crossings management and reconstruction of the war-torn territory, a statement from the Palestinian presidency reads.
Negotiators from Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel have agreed on “all necessary arrangements to implement” the Gaza ceasefire deal, Egyptian media reported. During Friday’s talks, which reportedly ended “on a positive note”, negotiators agreed to form a joint operations room in Cairo to “ensure effective coordination” and compliance with the truce terms, it said.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is to last 42 days and take effect from Sunday, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women – including female soldiers – and those aged over 50. In exchange, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed by Hamas.
Israel’s justice ministry released a list of 95 Palestinians held in Israeli prisoners to be freed in the first exchange, including 25 male prisoners, all under the age of 21, and 70 female prisoners. One of the most well-known individuals on the list is Palestinian parliament member and feminist lawmaker Khalida Jarrar.
The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, welcomed the ceasefire but warned that it was “only a starting point”. Lazzarini, in a press briefing on Friday, called for a “rapid, uninterrupted and unhindered” humanitarian access to the “tremendous suffering” in Gaza. He also noted that the Israeli Knesset’s legislation barring the UN agency will come into effect in less than two weeks, warning that it would be “catastrophic” for Gaza and “irreversibly harm the lives and future of the Palestinians”. UK lawmakers warned on Friday that an Israeli ban on Unrwa threatens to undermine efforts for peace in the Middle East.
Aid agencies have warned of obstacles for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order. A UN official called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors”. On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.
International criminal court (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, defended his decision to bring war crimes allegations against Israel’s prime minister, saying Israel had made “no real effort” to investigate the allegations itself. In an interview with Reuters, he stood by his decision over the arrest warrant despite a vote last week by the US House of Representatives to sanction the ICC in protest, a move he described as “unwanted and unwelcome”.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was “concerned” after two journalists were forcibly removed from a US state department briefing after interrupting a press conference by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Thursday. “Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague?” Independent journalist Sam Husseini shouted at Blinken during the unusually chaotic briefing.
UN secretary-general António Guterres urged an end to Israel’s “continued occupation” and “military operations” in south Lebanon, after a November ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah. “The continued occupation by the Israel [military] inside the Unifil area operations and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory are violations of resolution 1701 … They must stop,” he said on Friday, referring to the UN security council decision that ended a 2006 war between both sides.
A former US intelligence official pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified documents detailing Israel’s plans for military attacks on Iran. Asif Rahman, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2016, faces up to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in a federal court in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.
Updated
We reported earlier that Israel’s justice ministry has published a list of 95 Palestinians held in Israeli prisoners who are set to be released during the first stage of the ceasefire.
On the list are 70 female prisoners and 25 male prisoners, according to Associated Press. The male prisoners are all under the age of 21, the youngest just 16 years old.
They have been accused of crimes including incitement, vandalism, supporting terror, terror activities, attempted murder or throwing stones or molotov cocktails.
One of the most well-known individuals on the list is Palestinian parliament member and feminist lawmaker Khalida Jarrar.
Jarrar, 61, is a prominent figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a faction in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, who was arrested by the Israeli army on 26 December, and has been detained without trial since then.
Human Rights Watch has called Jarrar’s arrests part of Israel’s wider crackdown on non-violent political opposition.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it is “concerned” after two journalists were forcibly removed from a US state department briefing after interrupting a press conference by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Thursday.
“Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague?” Independent journalist Sam Husseini shouted at Blinken during the unusually chaotic briefing.
Husseini was picked up by security personnel and carried out of the room as he continued to heckle Blinken.
In a statement, the CPJ said:
While we do not condone the interruption of the press conference, forcibly removing the reporters undercuts the United States’ support for freedom of the press at home and abroad.
Israel’s education minister, Yoav Kisch, said he voted to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal, describing his decision to do so as “complex”.
“The price of the deal is very heavy,” he posted to X. “But we have an ultimate moral obligation to return our brothers and sisters home.” He added:
It’s important for me to make it clear – we are not moving away from the goals of the war, no matter how long it takes – the return of all our hostages home, the collapse of the Hamas regime and the assurance that Gaza will not pose a threat to the State of Israel.
Negotiators from Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel have agreed on “all necessary arrangements to implement” the Gaza ceasefire deal, Egyptian media is reporting.
During Friday’s talks, which reportedly ended “on a positive note”, negotiators agreed to form a joint operations room in Cairo to “ensure effective coordination” and compliance with the truce terms, AFP reported, citing Egyptian media.
The room will include representatives from Egypt, Qatar, the US, Israel and the Palestinian territories, it said.
The agreement comes within the framework of efforts made to ensure the cessation of escalation and achieve long-term stability in the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian official told the BBC.
Israeli foreign minister says he will vote in favour of ceasefire
A meeting of Israel’s full cabinet to discuss and vote on the hostage deal is still ongoing after several hours, according to Israeli media reports.
Israel’s security chiefs have finished briefing the cabinet on the deal, the Times of Israel is reporting, citing Kan news.
Some of the ministers have decided to submit their votes early rather than wait until the end of the meeting to do so, it reports.
Foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has confirmed that he voted for the deal during the security cabinet meeting earlier on Friday.
In a Facebook post, Sa’ar wrote that he and fellow Knesset member Ze’ev Elkin will support the deal in the full cabinet meeting.
Updated
A former US intelligence official has pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified documents detailing Israel’s plans for military attacks on Iran.
Asif Rahman, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2016, faces up to 20 years in prison after pleaded guilty in a federal court in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.
The documents related to Israel’s military planning for a retaliatory strike on Iran following the 1 October missile barrage that was Tehran’s largest-ever assault on its regional foe.
According to a court filing, Rahman photographed the documents and used a computer program to edit the images in “an attempt to conceal their source and delete his activity.”
He then transmitted the documents to “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them” before shredding them at work, it said.
Protests in favour and against Gaza ceasefire deal have taken place across Israel while Palestinians welcome concessions.
The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Quique Kierszenbaum report:
News of a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas has been greeted with joy by Palestinians, but a more wary approach in Israel, where demonstrators both in favour and against the deal have taken to the streets in protest.
The deal, which is supposed to go into effect on Sunday, is made up of three stages: in the first 42-day phase, 33 Israeli hostages are expected to be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. In Gaza, the 2.3 million population – nearly all of whom are displaced from their homes – will be allowed to move freely around the territory, and there is expected to be a huge increase in aid supplies.
Israel’s stated objectives in the 15-month war in Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, are to completely destroy the Palestinian group, and to bring the remaining 100 or so hostages home. For many, the compromises made this week in Qatar to get the deal over the line are seen as a betrayal, but for differing reasons.
For the full story, click here:
The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan explains the pact reached between Israel and Hamas to halt fighting:
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the key developments:
Israel’s full cabinet has begun meeting to consider the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, after the smaller security cabinet voted to approve the deal earlier today. The Israeli high court is still scheduled to hear petitions against elements of the agreement, but it is widely expected not to intervene. Hardline national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who on Thursday threatened to quit the government if it ratified the agreement, urged his allies to stop the deal ahead of the full cabinet meeting.
More than 115 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday. Since Wednesday night, 116 Palestinians were killed, 62 of them women and children, said a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency. Gaza’s health ministry said at least 46,876 people have been killed and 110,642 injured in more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is to last 42 days and take effect from Sunday, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women – including female soldiers – and those aged over 50. In exchange, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages. Israel’s justice ministry released a list of 95 Palestinians held in Israeli prisoners to be freed in the first exchange. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed by Hamas.
The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, welcomed the ceasefire but warned that it was “only a starting point”. Lazzarini, in a press briefing on Friday, called for a “rapid, uninterrupted and unhindered” humanitarian access to the “tremendous suffering” in Gaza. He also noted that the Israeli Knesset’s legislation barring the UN agency will come into effect in less than two weeks, warning that it would be “catastrophic” for Gaza and “irreversibly harm the lives and future of the Palestinians”. UK lawmakers warned on Friday that an Israeli ban on Unrwa threatens to undermine efforts for peace in the Middle East.
Aid agencies have warned of obstacles for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order. A UN official called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors”. On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.
Joe Biden said Israel “has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians for the long term sustainability of Israel. In what has been billed as his final interview as president, Biden said “the idea that Israel is going to be able to sustain itself for the long term without accommodating the Palestinian question … It’s not going to happen.”
International criminal court (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, defended his decision to bring war crimes allegations against Israel’s prime minister, saying Israel had made “no real effort” to investigate the allegations itself. In an interview with Reuters, he stood by his decision over the arrest warrant despite a vote last week by the US House of Representatives to sanction the ICC in protest, a move he described as “unwanted and unwelcome”.
UN secretary-general António Guterres urged an end to Israel’s “continued occupation” and “military operations” in south Lebanon, after a November ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah. “The continued occupation by the Israel [military] inside the Unifil area operations and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory are violations of resolution 1701 … They must stop,” he said on Friday, referring to the UN security council decision that ended a 2006 war between both sides.
Updated
Palestinian Authority says it is ready to assume 'full responsibility' in Gaza
The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume “full responsibility” in postwar Gaza, president Mahmoud Abbas said in his first statement since a ceasefire deal was announced.
“The Palestinian government, under president Abbas’ directives, has completed all preparations to assume full responsibility in Gaza,” a statement shared by AFP reads.
This would include the return of displaced people, providing basic services, crossings management and reconstruction of the war-torn territory, it said.
It also urged the international community to offer aid to Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, adding that there should be an “international peace conference” to recognise the State of Palestine and support its entry to the UN.
Footage broadcast by the Egyptian news channel Al-Qahera shows dozens of trucks packed with life-saving aid preparing to cross the Rafah border into Gaza before the implementation of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas:
A provision to increase the aid entering Gaza under the ceasefire is welcome but insufficient, and shows Israel could have allowed more food, medicine and other supplies into the strip during the war, humanitarian and legal experts said.
The deal agreed this week allows for 600 trucks a day of aid to enter Gaza, where nine out of 10 Palestinians are going hungry and experts warn that famine is imminent in areas. Israel faces accusations it is using starvation as a weapon of war.
Tania Hary, the executive director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights organisation that petitioned Israel’s high court over the lack of aid entering Gaza, said:
We have said throughout the war that Israel could always have done more to surge the aid response and this clause is effectively an admission of that. We don’t deny that in the absence of hostilities it will be safer for the trucks and workers to move around Gaza but that was far from the only or defining factor in how much aid reached people.
Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini also spoke about the “fierce global disinformation campaign” against the UN agency.
He pointed to an “intense diplomatic lobbying by the government of Israel as well as by affiliated NGOs”, noting the billboard and Google ads reportedly paid for by the Israeli government.
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Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini noted that the Israeli Knesset’s legislation barring the UN agency will come into effect in less than two weeks.
Full implementation of the legislation would be “catastrophic” in Gaza, he warned.
It would massively weaken the international humanitarian response, and this will immeasurably worsen an already dire, catastrophic living condition.
He said the disintegration of Unrwa would “intensify the breakdown of a social order”, “undermine” the ceasefire agreement” and “sabotage” Gaza’s recovery and political transition in the West Bank.
The legislation would “irreversibly harm the lives and future of the Palestinians” as well as “obliterate their trust in the international community”.
Ceasefire 'only a starting point', says Unrwa chief
The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, has welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal and called for all parties to ensure the deal is fully implemented.
Lazzarini, in a press briefing, called for a “rapid, uninterrupted and unhindered” humanitarian access to the “tremendous suffering” in Gaza.
“The ceasefire is only a starting point,” he said, noting that Unrwa is ready to scale up aid delivery and support the recovery of the Palestinian territory by resuming education and providing primary health care.
Sigrid Kaag, the former Dutch foreign minister, has been named as the United Nations’ Middle East envoy.
Kaag will also continue in her current role as the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, a UN spokesperson said.
Israeli cabinet begins meeting on ceasefire deal
Israel’s full cabinet has begun meeting to vote on the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Israel’s security cabinet met earlier on Friday to ratify the deal.
The deal then goes to the full cabinet for the final signoff so that the agreement can be implemented on Sunday with the release of the first hostages and prisoners.
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After 15 months of relentless bombardment, the war in Gaza has been the deadliest on record for journalists – with at least 166 Palestinian media workers killed according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
As the world waits for the Israeli cabinet to approve the first phase of a ceasefire due to start on Sunday, press freedom organisations are now demanding unfettered access into Gaza for foreign journalists – who have so far been barred by Israel – and calling for accountability for Israel’s alleged war crimes, urging justice to replace a culture of impunity.
“For 15 months, journalists in Gaza have been displaced, starved, defamed, threatened, injured and killed by the Israeli army,” said Thibaut Bruttin, director general of Reporters Without Borders.
“Despite these dangers, they have continued to inform the population of the enclave and the world while their foreign colleagues were denied access to the territory.”
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Israel's hardline security minister urges allies to stop deal at full cabinet meeting
Israel’s hardline security minister, Itamar Ben- Gvir, has urged his allies to stop the Gaza ceasefire deal after the country’s security cabinet ratified the deal earlier on Friday.
Ben Gvir, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, said he had been “horrified by details of the deal.
He called on his allies to continue their opposition to the ceasefire during the full cabinet meeting scheduled for later today. “We can stop this deal, join me, we can stop it,” he said.
On Thursday, Ben-Gvir said he would quit the government if it ratifies the ceasefire deal, calling it “irresponsible” and “reckless”.
Accepting the ceasefire deal with Hamas would “erase the achievements of the war” by releasing Palestinian militants and ceding territory in Gaza, he had claimed.
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Israel's president welcomes security cabinet decision to approve deal
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, welcomed the Israeli security cabinet’s decision on Friday to approve the ceasefire deal, saying it would “bring our hostages home”.
“I harbor no illusions — the deal will bring with it great challenges and painful, agonizing moments that we will need to overcome and face together,” he posted to X.
With all my heart, I embrace the families of the hostages, especially those who know that their loved ones will not return in the first stage. We must bring everyone back. Everyone! We will not rest or relent until this happens.
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Israel publishes list of 95 Palestinians to be freed in first phase of hostage deal
Israel’s justice ministry has released a list of 95 Palestinians held in Israeli prisoners to be freed in the first exchange of the hostage release deal with Hamas.
Most of the people on the list are women, and the vast majority were arrested after the Hamas attacks on 7 October, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women, including female soldiers, and men aged over 50.
In exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages.
Russia hopes that the ceasefire in Gaza will lead to long-term stabilisation of the region, president Vladimir Putin said on Friday at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian.
Pezeshkian said he hoped the ceasefire would be implemented.
Putin said it was important not to weaken efforts towards a comprehensive settlement of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, leading to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Summary of the day so far
It is coming up to 5pm in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut. Here is a summary of the key updates so far today:
Israel’s security cabinet has ratified a ceasefire deal to exchange dozens of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails and pause the 15-month war for an initial six weeks. The deal will now go to the full cabinet for the final signoff so that the agreement can be implemented on Sunday with the release of the first hostages and prisoners. The Israeli high court is still scheduled to hear petitions against elements of the agreement, but it is widely expected not to intervene. Earlier, the government’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign from the government if the deal was approved.
Earlier on Fiday Hamas issued a statement saying that obstacles that arose in relation to the terms of the Gaza ceasefire agreement had been resolved. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had accused Hamas on Thursday of reneging on key parts of the agreement to extort last-minute concessions. No evidence was provided for the allegation and Hamas denied it.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is to last 42 days and take effect from Sunday, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women – including female soldiers – and those aged over 50. In exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages.
French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Friday that French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed by Hamas after a ceasefire with Israel. Macon was visting Lebanon on Friday to meet the country’s newly elected leaders.
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel met in Cairo on Friday to set out “mechanisms” for implementing the truce in Gaza, state-linked media reported. Citing an informed Egyptian source, Al-Qahera News said technical meetings started in Cairo on Friday “to put mechanisms for implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza with the participation of Egyptian, Qatari, US and Israeli teams”, ahead of expected implementation of the deal on Sunday.
While an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal has sparked hope for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, aid agencies have warned of obstacles from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order. The UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors”. On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.
In what has been advertised as his final interview as president, Joe Biden has said that Israel “has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians for the long term sustainability of Israel. He told broadcaster MSNBC: “And the idea that Israel is going to be able to sustain itself for the long term without accommodating the Palestinian question … It’s not going to happen.”
The Gaza health ministry said on Friday that 88 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the previous 24 hours. The ministry said that at least 46,876 people have been killed and 110,642 injured in more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israel has pounded several areas of the territory after the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds. Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their “freedom … into a tragedy”.
On Friday, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, announced a decision to free West Bank settlers held under administrative detention orders, before the expected release of Palestinian security prisoners in a ceasefire deal signed with Hamas, reported the Times of Israel.
UK lawmakers warned on Friday that an Israeli ban on the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency due to be implemented this month threatens to undermine efforts for peace in the Middle East. UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said on Thursday that legislation barring Unrwa from operating in Israel and East Jerusalem due to be implemented by the end of January threatened the ceasefire agreement.
International criminal court (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, has defended his decision to bring war crimes allegations against Israel’s prime minister, saying Israel had made “no real effort” to investigate the allegations itself. In an interview with Reuters, he stood by his decision over the arrest warrant despite a vote last week by the US House of Representatives to sanction the ICC in protest, a move he described as “unwanted and unwelcome”.
United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, on Friday urged an end to Israel’s “continued occupation” and “military operations” in south Lebanon, after a November ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah. “The continued occupation by the Israel [military] inside the Unifil area operations and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory are violations of resolution 1701 … They must stop,” he told members of the UN peacekeeping force as he visited them, referring to the UN security council decision that ended a 2006 war between both sides.
British airline easyJet on Friday said it plans to resume flights to and from Tel Aviv from June after a ceasefire agreement was announced between Israel and Hamas. The carrier paused flights to and from its sole Israeli destination in April last year, citing safety concerns. German carrier Lufthansa on Thursday said it would resume flights to Tel Aviv from February.
The Gaza health ministry said on Friday that 88 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the previous 24 hours.
The ministry said that at least 46,876 people have been killed and 110,642 injured in more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
UK lawmakers warned on Friday that an Israeli ban on the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency due to be implemented this month threatens to undermine efforts for peace in the Middle East.
A long-awaited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the 15-month war in Gaza is due to take effect this weekend.
UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said on Thursday that legislation barring Unrwa from operating in Israel and East Jerusalem due to be implemented by the end of January threatened the agreement. “What we don’t want is this peace, that begins on Sunday, undermined by that legislation just a few days into its passing,” he told parliament on Thursday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The chair of the UK parliament’s international development committee (IDC) echoed his call on Friday.
“While news of a ceasefire is encouraging, the situation on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank remains alarming,” said Sarah Champion. She added:
Israel’s proposed ban on Unrwa would prevent aid distribution in Gaza, devastate Palestinian livelihoods and send disruptive ripples throughout the Middle East.”
Her comments came as the IDC published a report urging the UK government to “do all it can” to ensure Unrwa is able to continue its work. The report concluded that if Unrwa were banned it would almost certainly lead to further conflict and displacement.
Unrwa provides aid to six million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
But the agency has faced criticism from Israeli officials that has escalated since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel claims that a dozen Unrwa employees were involved in Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack.
Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
A series of probes, including one led by France’s former foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality related issues” at Unrwa but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its chief allegations.
British airline easyJet on Friday said it plans to resume flights to and from Tel Aviv from June after a ceasefire agreement was announced between Israel and Hamas.
The carrier paused flights to and from its sole Israeli destination in April last year, citing safety concerns.
German carrier Lufthansa on Thursday said it would resume flights to Tel Aviv from February.
EasyJet will restart flights between Tel Aviv and London Luton airport, as well as between Israel and Amsterdam, Basel, Berlin, Geneva, Milan and Nice, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We are really pleased that as of the beginning of June, we plan to resume flights between Tel Aviv and seven destinations across our network,” said Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK and Israel country manager.
Under the first phase of the deal, which is to last 42 days, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women – including female soldiers – and those aged over 50. In exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other female hostages.
According to a copy of the agreement seen by the Guardian, nine ill and wounded Israelis will be released in exchange for 110 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli jails. Men over 50 on the list of 33 hostages will be released in return for prisoners serving life sentences at a ratio of 1:3, and 1:27 for other sentences.
The deal will also allow in the first phase Palestinians displaced from their homes to be allowed to move freely around the Gaza Strip, which Israel has cut into two halves with a military corridor. Wounded people are supposed to be evacuated for treatment abroad, and aid to the territory should increase to 600 trucks a day, above the 500 minimum that aid agencies say is needed to contain Gaza’s devastating humanitarian crisis.
In the second phase, the remaining living hostages would be sent back and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners would be freed, and Israel would completely withdraw from the territory. The specifics are subject to further negotiations, which are due to start 16 days into the first phase.
The third phase would address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza would be launched. Arrangements for future governance of the strip remain hazy. The Biden administration and much of the international community have advocated for the semi-autonomous West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which lost control of Gaza to Hamas in a brief civil war in 2007, to return to the strip. Israel, however, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion.
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Israel security cabinet approves Gaza ceasefire agreement
Israel’s security cabinet has ratified a ceasefire deal to exchange dozens of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails and pause the 15-month war for an initial six weeks.
The approval came after an unexpected delay which sparked fears that last-minute disagreements between Israel and Hamas could scuttle the agreement. Far-right members of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government also threatened to derail months of work to end the conflict.
The deal will now go to the full cabinet for the final signoff so that the agreement can be implemented on Sunday with the release of the first hostages and prisoners.
The Israeli high court is still scheduled to hear petitions against elements of the agreement, but it is widely expected not to intervene.
Read more here from Lorenzo Tondo and Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem:
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Mediators from Egypt, Qatar, the US and Israel met in Cairo on Friday to set out “mechanisms” for implementing the truce in Gaza, state-linked media reported.
Citing an informed Egyptian source, Al-Qahera News said technical meetings started in Cairo on Friday “to put mechanisms for implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza with the participation of Egyptian, Qatari, US and Israeli teams”, ahead of expected implementation of the deal on Sunday.
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United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, on Friday urged an end to Israel’s “continued occupation” and “military operations” in south Lebanon, after a November ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The continued occupation by the Israel [military] inside the Unifil area operations and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory are violations of resolution 1701 … They must stop,” he told members of the UN peacekeeping force as he visited them, referring to the UN security council decision that ended a 2006 war between both sides.
Also on Friday, Guterres said peacekeepers had discovered more than “100 weapons caches” belonging to Hezbollah and its allies in south Lebanon since a ceasefire between the group and Israel.
UN peacekeepers “uncovered over 100 weapons caches belonging to Hezbollah or other armed groups since 27 November,” he said, adding that the “presence of armed personnel, assets and weapons” other than those of the Lebanese army and the Unifil peacekeeping force violated a UN security council decision that ended a 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
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Further on the report that two sources close to Hamas told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the first group of hostages to be released consists of three Israeli women soldiers (see 11.26am GMT), here is some more detail via the news agency:
However, since Hamas considers any Israeli of military age who has completed mandatory service as a soldier, the reference could also apply to civilians abducted during the 7 October 2023 attack.
The first three names on a list obtained by AFP of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase are women under 30 who were not in military service on the day of the Hamas attack.
Israeli security cabinet meeting to discuss ceasefire deal
Here is an image from the Israeli security cabinet discussion today at the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
The Security Cabinet discussion has begun, at the Prime Minister's Office.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) January 17, 2025
Before the meeting, an operational security assessment was held on the implementation of the agreement, chaired by Prime Minister Netanyahu, together with the negotiating team which has returned from Doha pic.twitter.com/3uPMwTSO3U
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Two sources close to Hamas have told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that three Israeli female soldiers would be the first to be released on Sunday evening. They would be received by Red Cross aid workers as well as Egyptian and Qatari teams, one source said on condition of anonymity.
“They will then be transported to Egypt, where they will be handed over to the Israeli side present there to complete the handover and conduct necessary medical examinations,” the source told AFP.
“Afterward, they will be transported directly to Israel. (Israel) is then expected to release the first group of Palestinian prisoners, including several with high sentences,” the source added.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the report.
On Wednesday, Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported coordination was under way to reopen the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). It was one of the main humanitarian entry points but has been closed since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side in May.
The ceasefire deal is based on a plan Joe Biden presented in mid-2024 that foresaw an increase in aid to 600 trucks a day, or more than eight times the December average reported by the UN.
The World Food Programme said on Thursday it had enough food for one million people “waiting outside Gaza or on its way”.
On the Egyptian side of the border, a source in the Egyptian Red Crescent told AFP up to 1,000 trucks are waiting “for their entry into Gaza”. But with airstrikes continuing to pound the territory, where aid groups and the UN have regularly accused Israel of impeding aid flows – which Israeli denies – aid workers were sceptical.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator, Amande Bazerolle told AFP that the promise of hundreds of trucks a day “is not even feasible technically”. “Since Rafah has been destroyed, the infrastructure is not there to be able to cope with that level of logistics,” she said, with bombs audible in the background, reported the news agency.
Aid that does arrive is subject to looting by both armed gangs and desperate civilians. “The Israelis have targeted the police, so there’s no one to protect the shipments” from looting, which Bazerolle said will continue “as long as there’s not enough aid entering”.
After more than a year of the “systematic dismantling of the rule of law” in Gaza, Gavin Kelleher, of the Norwegian Refugee Council called for “the resumption of a Palestinian civilian police force.”
The situation is especially dire in northern Gaza. Bazerolle, who says MSF missions in the area have been targeted by Israel, says the group hopes to send teams to the north “to at least treat patients where they are,” in the absence of hospitals.
According to the World Health Organization, only one hospital, al-Awda, is partially functioning in the north. The WHO’s Rik Peeperkorn said that, in addition to hospital capacity, his agency will focus on “the very basic things” including water, electricity and waste management systems in Gaza.
Still, the displaced will hope to head back – including Mohammed al-Khatib, of Medical Aid for Palestinians – if the truce holds. Many, he said, “will return to find their entire neighbourhoods destroyed” and without food or shelter.
“People aren’t even talking about rebuilding their houses, but just the most basic essential needs,” he continued. “We’re closing one chapter of suffering and opening a new one,” he predicted, before adding: “At least there is some hope of the bloodshed ending.”
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Emmanuel Macron says two French-Israelis among first hostages to be freed by Hamas
French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Friday that French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages to be freed by Hamas after a ceasefire with Israel.
Macron’s announcement came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday.
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An Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal expected to take effect on Sunday has sparked hope for life-saving aid to reach Palestinians, but aid agencies have warned of obstacles from destroyed infrastructure, massive need and collapsed law and order.
Announcing the truce, US president Joe Biden said on Wednesday that it would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians”.
The UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, called it “a moment of hope and opportunity” but said “we should be under no illusions how tough it will still be to get support to survivors”.
On the ground in the territory, where nearly all 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry nothing will be enough to meet the need.
“Everything has been destroyed. Children are on the streets. You can’t pinpoint just one priority,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator, Amande Bazerolle, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by phone from Gaza.
Speaking from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Mohammed al-Khatib, of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said local aid workers have not stopped for 15 months even though they themselves are displaced. “Everyone is exhausted,” he said.
In the hunger-striken makeshift shelters set up in former schools, bombed-out houses and cemeteries, hundreds of thousands lack even plastic sheeting to protect from winter rains and biting winds, Gavin Kelleher, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP.
Even if the bombs stop, agencies like his have to focus on the basics of emergency response, including bringing in “tarpaulins, rope and fixtures to close gaping holes” in buildings.
“At least until we stop seeing children dying of hypothermia,” he said via text message from Gaza.
By last week, hypothermia had killed at least eight people – four newborns, three infants and one adult – according to a health ministry toll used by the World Health Organization.
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Hamas says obstacles to ceasefire deal have been resolved
Hamas said on Friday that obstacles that arose in relation to the terms of the Gaza ceasefire agreement have been resolved, according to a statement issued by the group.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israel pounded several areas of the territory after the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their “freedom … into a tragedy”.
Release of Gaza hostages expected to begin on Sunday, says Netanyahu's office
The release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.
“Subject to the approval of the cabinet and the government, and the implementation of the agreement, the release of the hostages can proceed according to the planned framework, with the hostages expected to be released as early as Sunday,” the office said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse.
Israel security cabinet begins meeting to vote on Gaza ceasefire deal - report
Israel’s security cabinet began a meeting on Friday to discuss and vote on a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, an official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The security cabinet meeting to discuss and vote on the deal has started,” the Israeli official familiar with the matter said.
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Here are some of the latest images of Gaza via the newswires:
Israel to free West bank settlers under detention orders, defence minister Israel Katz says
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has announced a decision to free West Bank settlers held under administrative detention orders, before the expected release on Sunday or Monday of Palestinian security prisoners in a ceasefire deal signed with Hamas in Doha last night, according to the Times of Israel.
The publication reports that Katz said in his statement:
In light of the expected release of terrorists from Judea and Samaria as part of the hostage release deal, I have decided to release the settlers detained in administrative detention and to convey a clear message of strengthening and encouraging the [West Bank] settlements, which are at the forefront of the struggle against Palestinian terrorism and facing growing security challenges.”
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France’s president began a visit to Lebanon on Friday, where he will meet the country’s newly elected leaders, as it attempts to recover from the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war.
Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Lebanon, his first in more than four years, follows a 60-day ceasefire deal that aims to end the war, reports the Associated Press (AP). France helped broker the deal and a French officer is a member of the committee that is supervising the truce, which went into effect on 27 November.
Macron was received at Beirut’s international airport by caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, and was expected to head to the country’s south, where French troops are deployed part of a UN peacekeeping force along the border with Israel. “This is a message of gratitude,” Macron told journalists at the airport.
The French leader has been a harsh critic of Lebanon’s political class, whom many blame for the decades of corruption and mismanagement that led in October 2019 to the country’s worst economic and financial crisis.
Macron is scheduled to meet the new prime minister, Nawaf Salam, and president Joseph Aoun. Aoun and the prime minister-designate have promised to work on getting Lebanon out of its economic crisis and to impose state authority over parts of the country long controlled by Hezbollah.
“President Macron promised to keep support for the new government,” Mikati said after meeting the French leader at the airport. He added that Macron will meet early Friday with the US and French officers on the ceasefire monitoring committee and will later meet Lebanese officials.
Asked if France can guarantee that Israel will withdraw its troops from Lebanon, by the end of the 60-day truce, Mikati said this was not discussed, adding that the French side is following the matter with US officials.
Macron last visited Lebanon in August 2020, days after a port blast in Beirut killed more than 200 people and injured thousands.
ICC prosecutor says there has been 'no real effort' by Israel to probe alleged Gaza war crimes
International criminal court (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, has defended his decision to bring war crimes allegations against Israel’s prime minister, saying Israel had made “no real effort” to investigate the allegations itself.
In an interview with Reuters, he stood by his decision over the arrest warrant despite a vote last week by the US House of Representatives to sanction the ICC in protest, a move he described as “unwanted and unwelcome”.
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Khan’s remarks to Reuters.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of The Hague-based court and denies war crimes. The US, Israel’s main ally, is also not a member of the ICC and Washington has criticised the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.
“We’re here as a court of last resort and … as we speak right now, we haven’t seen any real effort by the State of Israel to take action that would meet the established jurisprudence, which is investigations regarding the same suspects for the same conduct,” Khan told Reuters.
“That can change and I hope it does,” he said in Thursday’s interview, a day after Israel and Hamas reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
An Israeli investigation could have led to the case being handed back to Israeli courts under so-called complementary principles. Israel can still demonstrate its willingness to investigate, even after warrants were issued, he said.
The ICC, with 125 member states, is the world’s permanent court to prosecute individuals for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression.
Khan said that Israel had very good legal expertise. But he said “the question is have those judges, have those prosecutors, have those legal instruments been used to properly scrutinise the allegations that we’ve seen in the occupied Palestinian territories, in the State of Palestine? And I think the answer to that was ‘no’.”
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The Times of Israel reports that Israel’s interior minister, Moshe Arbel, has submitted a request to the cabinet secretary, Yossi Fuchs, to hold a telephone vote to approve the ceasefire deal with Hamas that was signed in Doha last night.
According to the publication Arbel wrote:
In these matters, every hour and every minute is important - both for the hostages themselves and for their families who yearn for certainty after over a year in captivity.
Therefore … I request that the government hold a telephone vote on this issue so that the families of the hostages can know at the beginning of Shabbat that the Israeli government has approved the deal and that it will be implemented at the beginning of the week.”
The Times of Israel report that a spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this morning that the full cabinet meeting was not scheduled to take place until tomorrow evening to give people who are religious and observe the Sabbath time to petition.
G7 countries fully endorse ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
The G7 countries said on Friday they fully endorse the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, and urged Iran to avoid further attacks against Israel, reports Reuters.
The Israeli cabinet will meet to give final approval to a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and release of hostages.
“We urge Iran and its proxies to refrain from any further attacks against Israel,” the G7 said in a statement, adding they confirmed support for “Israel’s security in the face of these threats”.
Al Jazeera reports, citing Israeli media Ynet and Walla, that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is now meeting with the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, over the latter’s opposition to the planned Gaza ceasefire.
A bit more from Joe Biden’s final interview as president. Speaking to MSNBC, he recounted a conversation he had with Netanyahu shortly after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. He said:
I told them we were going to help, but Bibi, I said, you can’t be carpet-bombing in these [Gaza] communities.
And he said to me: ‘Well you did it... You carpet-bombed Berlin. You dropped a nuclear weapon. You killed thousands of people because you had to in order to win a war.
The interviewer says, “So he was comparing 21st century war tactics with World War II ?
Biden responds that Netanyahu was making a “legitimate argument.” He said:
He was going after me for saying ‘you can’t indiscriminately bomb civilian areas even if the bad guys are there … you can’t take out two, 10, 12, 15 hundred people, innocent people, in order to get the one bad guy.’ And he made the legitimate argument … look these are the guys that killed my people.
Biden has supplied Israel with billions of dollars worth of weapons for its war on Gaza, in which tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and maimed.
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Hundreds of people turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally in New York’s Times Square on Thursday night, including members of the Orthodox Jewish community. Counter protesters also attended.
Analysis: deal leaves Netanyahu critically exposed to criticism over his Gaza policies
The nature of Israel’s febrile coalition politics has long favoured theatrics. The standing and psychology of its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, adds a further element of panic and cynical calculation.
All those characteristics were in evidence as Israel and Hamas edged towards a ceasefire deal, particularly in Netanyahu’s struggle to triangulate his portrayal of an agreement that has the potential to damage him politically.
The deal, as many in the Israeli media have not been slow to point out, is essentially identical to the agreement that Netanyahu torpedoed over the summer, leaving more Israeli hostages and soldiers to die in the intervening months.
Moreover, for Israel’s right and far right specifically, it is not clear how a negotiated settlement accords with Netanyahu’s promise of “total victory” and Hamas’s complete defeat. Instead, the deal, if it holds, offers the possibility that Hamas will survive, with its wounded going to Egypt to be treated.
The reality is that an open-ended war in Gaza has always suited Netanyahu and his supporters more than the interest of Israelis as a whole.
It has allowed Netanyahu and his supporters to kick the issue of accountability for the failings associated with Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 into the long grass. It has also allowed the Israeli prime minister, on trial for corruption charges, to present an image in the dock of a figure preoccupied with his country’s security for whom the proceedings are a distraction.
As a wartime leader, he has invoked the longstanding convention in Israel that unity should trump politics to glue together his fractious coalition of the right and far right.
The deal exposes Netanyahu on all of those fronts, which explains why he has been uncomfortable with being tied to it.
It has been difficult to get details on those who have been killed in Israeli attacks since the initial ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday night, as Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza.
However Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least 21 children and 25 women were among the dead. Israel claimed it had hit 50 terrorist targets across the Strip without providing any evidence.
The dead included five people, including two children and two women, who were killed when Israel struck a home near Jabalia, in northern Gaza and two people who were killed when Israel bombed a shelter for displaced Palestinians in al-Falah school in the al-Zeitoun neighbourhood south of Gaza City, Wafa reported.
A journalist was also among the dead this week, Palestinian media reported. Ahmed Al-Shayah was killed on Wednesday when Israel targeted a food distribution point in al-Mawasi, near the southern city of Khan Younis, the Palestine Chronicle reported.
At least 166 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, although others place the number at over 200.
Israel has been accused of deliberately targeting some journalists, which it denies.
Al Jazeera is reporting that at least nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since dawn on Friday. We’ll bring you more details when we can.
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France’s President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Beirut on Friday for a visit that will see him meet his counterpart and offer support as Lebanon’s leaders seek to open a new chapter in their country’s turbulent history. AFP reports:
After more than two years of a political vacuum at the top, Joseph Aoun was elected president on January 9 and chose Nawaf Salam as prime minister-designate.
They now face the daunting task of leading Lebanon after a devastating Israel-Hezbollah war and years of economic crisis.
Macron is also expected to meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres in the Lebanese capital as a 26 January deadline to fully implement an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal approaches.
Macron’s visit aims to “help” Aoun and Salam “to consolidate Lebanon’s sovereignty, ensure its prosperity and maintain its unity”, the French presidency said prior to his arrival.
Analysts say Hezbollah’s weakening in the war with Israel last year allowed Lebanon’s deeply divided political class to elect Aoun and to back his naming of Salam as premier.
France has special ties with Lebanon, which it administered for two decades after World War I, and the two countries have maintained close relations even since Lebanon’s independence in 1943.
During his final press conference earlier on Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken was heckled by two journalists who criticised him for his support for the war in Gaza.
That includes providing Israel with diplomatic support at the UN – blocking multiple calls for a ceasefire – and continuing to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel despite concerns within his own department it is committing human rights violations. Reuters reports:
“Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague,” shouted Sam Husseini, an independent journalist and longtime critic of Washington’s approach to the world. The Hague is where the International Criminal Court is located.
The unusually confrontational scene in the State Department briefing room only ended when security personnel forcibly picked up Husseini and carried him out of the room as he continued to heckle Blinken.
“Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?” Max Blumenthal, editor of the Grayzone, an outlet that strongly criticises many aspects of US foreign policy, called out to Blinken, before he was escorted out.
Biden himself has said the deal agreed to this week is exactly what was agreed in May.
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Analysis: ceasefire seals significant defeat for Hamas
The ceasefire due to come into force, barring a major last-minute problem, will cement massive and rapid changes across the Middle East and may seal a significant defeat for the Islamist militant groups that have been powerful actors in the region for years.
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and assorted Shia Muslim militia in Iraq and Syria will all emerge from the conflict considerably weakened. Only the Houthis in Yemen are stronger – though this may not last. The Islamic State remains a shadow of its former self.
For an organisation like Hamas simply to survive a big conflict is an achievement, and means Israel has failed to achieve one of its primary war aims. But the concessions made by Hamas since coming close to a ceasefire last May underline its enfeebled state.
Though no reliable statistics exist and Hamas has undoubtedly recruited many new fighters, its military arm has been badly degraded by the Israeli onslaught, with most senior and middle-ranking commanders killed.
The organisation maintains patchy authority in some areas of Gaza but nothing that resembles its full control through the 16 years when it completely controlled local government.
Trump says Gaza deal 'better be done before I take the oath of office'
US president-elect Donald Trump has said the Gaza ceasefire deal had “better be done before I take the oath of office” on Monday and called outgoing president Joe Biden “ungracious” for claiming credit for it. AFP reports:
Four days away from being inaugurated for a second term, Trump told the Dan Bongino Show that negotiations would have never finalised without pressure from his team, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
“If we weren’t involved in this deal, the deal would’ve never happened,” Trump said.
“We changed the course of it, and we changed it fast, and frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office,” he added.
Trump also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for taking credit for the ceasefire agreement, calling him “ungracious” and saying: “He didn’t do anything! If I didn’t do this, if we didn’t get involved, the hostages would never be out.”
Aside from a week-long ceasefire in November 2023, Biden has failed throughout the 15 months of the war to get Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a further truce and has instead supplied him with billions of dollars worth of weapons.
To read more about who should be claiming credit for the agreement, read my colleague Andrew Roth’s piece:
Families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails are eagerly awaiting their release following a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel that will liberate hundreds of detainees.
One thousand Palestinians arrested by Israeli troops in Gaza after the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 who did not take part in the offensive will be released, and some of the freed Palestinians from the West Bank will be sent to third countries rather than be allowed to return home.
Mervat Moadi, 53, from the village of Jifna, north of Ramallah, was waiting anxiously for the official list of Palestinian prisoners to be released. Her husband, Marwan, 64, was jailed in 2012 for allegedly participating in an infamous incident in the second intifada in which two army reservists who got lost were lynched by a crowd at police station in Ramallah in 2000. He denies any wrongdoing, saying he was present in a crowd of funeral mourners.
Marwan, was charged and sentenced to eight years in prison, and his conviction was extended on appeal to 22 years. The couple have three sons, and grandchildren the man has never met.
“The last time I visited him was in July 2023, and after that we were unable to see him during the war,” Mervat said. ‘‘I am very nervous. My heart tells me that I will see him. Every hour that passes feels like a year. Waiting is very difficult for the family. We, as wives of prisoners, whether Palestinian or Israeli, suffer every moment. We do not know when we will see our loved ones.’’
Read on below:
Israel steps up attacks on Gaza, killing scores of Palestinians
Scores of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hours after the initial news of the ceasefire became public. Associated Press reports:
“We were expecting that the (Israeli) occupation would intensify the bombing, like they did every time there were reports of progress in truce talks,” said Mohammed Mahdi, who was sheltering in Gaza City.
Gaza’s health ministry said the toll of 72 from Thursday’s strikes only included bodies brought to two hospitals in Gaza City and that the number killed was likely higher.
“Yesterday was a bloody day, and today is bloodier,” said Zaher al-Wahedi, a health ministry official.
The Israeli military claimed it had struck approximately 50 militant targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launch sites. It provided no evidence for the claim.
Photographs from hospitals in Gaza showed small children among the dead and injured.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that five Palestinians including two women and two children were killed when an Israeli airstrike struck a house to the west of Jabalia.
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In what has been advertised as his final interview as president, Joe Biden has said that Israel “has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians for the long term sustainability of Israel. He told broadcaster MSNBC:
And the idea that Israel is going to be able to sustain itself for the long term without accommodating the Palestinian question ... It’s not going to happen ....
And I kept reminding my friend, and he is a friend, although we don’t agree a whole lot lately, Bibi Netanyahu, that he has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns of a large group of people called Palestinians, who have no place to live independently.
Biden has supplied Israel with billions of dollars worth of weapons throughout Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza, despite evidence the Israeli military is committing war crimes in Gaza and despite a law which prohibits the sale of US weapons to countries suspected of committing war crimes.
Hours earlier, the government’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign from the government if the deal was approved. In a televised statement he said:
“The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal,” adding that it would “erase the achievements of the war” by releasing hundreds of Palestinian militants and withdrawing from strategic areas in Gaza.
“If this irresponsible deal is approved and implemented, we the members of Jewish Power will submit letters of resignation to the prime minister,” he said.
In a post on X he added that the deal “endangers Israel’s security” and “constitutes a complete victory for Hamas”.
Ben-Gvir has himself been convicted of backing a group considered by both Israel and the US to be a terrorist organisation as well as racist incitement against Arabs.
The statement from Netanyahu’s office also says that the families of the hostages held in Gaza have been informed and adds:
The Prime Minister has also directed the Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing to coordinate the preparations to receive the hostages upon their return to Israel.
The State of Israel is committed to achieving all of the objectives of the war including the return of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased.
'Deal to release the hostages' agreed in Doha, Netanyahu's office says
The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a “deal for the release of the hostages” has been reached in Doha and that he has ordered the security cabinet to convene later on Friday, a day after originally intended.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been updated by the negotiating team that agreements have been reached on a deal for the release of the hostages,” his office said in a post on X in the early hours of Friday. It continued:
The Prime Minister has directed that the Security Cabinet be convened later today [Friday)]. The Government will be convened later in order to approve the deal.
His office had accused Hamas on Thursday of reneging on key parts of the agreement to extort last-minute concessions. No evidence was provided for the allegation and Hamas denied it. Netanyahu has been accused of deliberately sabotaging previous deals for his own political benefit.
It was not immediately clear whether the full cabinet would meet on Friday or Saturday or whether there would be any delay to the start of the ceasefire on Sunday. The deal did not mention a ceasefire although the hostages will not be released by Hamas without one.
The Times of Israel reported that the full cabinet meeting would not take place until Saturday night, citing a Netanyahu spokesperson. According to the paper that’s because
Opponents of the deal must be given 24 hours to petition the High Court of Justice and a Friday afternoon meeting would not provide them enough time to do so because many of them are religious and observe the Sabbath.
That could mean that the ceasefire does not come into effect until Monday, a day later than originally planned, the paper wrote further:
Holding the full cabinet meeting on Saturday means the 24-hour grace period for petition filing won’t conclude until late Sunday, meaning the deal won’t come into place until Monday — a day after originally slated.
It was not immediately possible to confirm the report. We’ll bring you more details as soon as we have them.
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Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of the latest news.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early on Friday that a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip had been reached. The announcement comes a day after Netanyahu’s office said there were last-minute snags in talks to free hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu said he would convene his security cabinet later on Friday and then the government to approve the ceasefire agreement.
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said the cabinet wouldn’t meet to approve the agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages until Hamas backed down, accusing the group of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions.
Expanding on that and other news:
Senior US officials insisted the hard-won ceasefire would go into effect on Sunday as planned despite an earlier delay. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he was “very confident” the ceasefire would go forward and he “fully expects that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday”. He confirmed that there had been a “loose end” between the sides in the complex negotiations. US representatives were still believed to be actively involved with talks in Doha on the final details needed to get the deal over the line.
A vote is now expected to take place on Friday morning, Israeli media reported. Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced on Thursday evening that he would quit the government if it ratifies the ceasefire deal, calling it “irresponsible” and “reckless”. Ben-Gvir’s departure would not bring down Netanyahu’s government. Opposition leader Yair Lapid pledged his support for Netanyahu, saying that the deal was “more important than any disagreement we’ve ever had.”
Fighting has continued in Gaza despite expectations of a ceasefire, with at least 80 Palestinians killed and hundreds more injured by Israeli airstrikes since the ceasefire announcement, according to the civil defence agency. The Israeli military said it had conducted strikes on “approximately 50 terror targets” across Gaza since late Wednesday. A civil defence spokesperson said its teams had recovered the bodies of five children after a strike on the northern city of Jabalia.
More than 46,788 Palestinians have been killed and a further 110,453 wounded by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Thursday. They include 81 killed and 188 injured in the past 24 hours. Among them was Fatin Shaqoura-Salha, the chief of nursing staff at Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, ActionAid said.
In the first phase of the ceasefire agreement announced on Wednesday – to last 42 days – Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages and in exchange, Israel would release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female Israeli soldier released by Hamas, and 30 for other hostages. Palestinians displaced from their homes would be allowed to move freely around Gaza, wounded people would be evacuated for treatment abroad, and aid to the territory should increase to 600 trucks a day. A second phase would include Israel completely withdrawing from Gaza.
The leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, said the Iran-aligned group would suspend their attacks on Red Sea targets but continue if Israel backtracked on the ceasefire. The Houthi attacks have damaged as many as 30 ships and caused a diversion of commercial shipping to South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. Reprisals by the US, Israel and the UK have damaged key Yemen ports and led to multiple deaths.
Arab states are urging Israel and the incoming Trump administration to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA), in conjunction with the UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, to oversee Gaza’s recovery. The future governance of Gaza is due to be discussed at the start of negotiations on the second stage of the deal 16 days after a ceasefire begins.
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