Israeli Government Finalizes Ceasefire Deal, First…

Israeli Government Finalizes Ceasefire Deal, First Hostages To Be Released Starting Sunday

Messages on photos in Tel Aviv of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, children held hostage in the Gaza Strip who are supposed to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas. (Credit: Amir Levy/Getty Images)

The Israeli government early Saturday morning signed off on the ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, ending 15 months of war and prompting joyous celebrations among Palestinians in Gaza and cautious hope among the families of those being held, according to reports.

The ceasefire will begin at 8:30 a.m. Sunday local time said Majid al-Ansari, the foreign minister of Qatar, which had been instrumental in the negotiations, said on X.

The first three Israeli hostages are expected to be freed on Sunday, and 33 hostages will be released in the first, 42-day phase of the pact, the Times of Israel reported.

Israel, in turn, will release 735 Palestinian prisoners, the report said.

The Prime Minister's Office said the Israel cabinet approved the agreement after meeting for more than seven hours. Twenty-four ministers voted to greenlight the deal and eight voted against it.

Qatar and the United States announced the agreement between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday but the final deal remained uncertain amid last-minute complications Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed on Hamas, the Associated Press reported.

Still to be determined are the names of the 33 hostages—men, women and children—to be released in the first phase, and how many of them are still alive, the AP reported.

After the release of the first three on Sunday, Hamas will free four on Day 7 and the other 26 over the following weeks.

Truckloads of humanitarian aid should begin pouring into Gaza, which has been devastated in the war that began when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Trucks began lining up Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza, the AP said.

At the same time, Israeli military forces will pull back from a number of areas in Gaza during the ceasefire's first phase, allowing tens of thousands of Palestinians to return to their homes.

"Once Sunday comes around, we would be happier, God willing," Ekhlas al-Kafarna, who was displaced during the war in Gaza, told the AP.

Daniel Lifshitz is waiting cautiously to learn whether his 84-year-old grandfather, Oded Lifshitz, who was taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, will come back alive or dead when the hostages are freed.

"We don't know anything about his conditions," Daniel told NBC News. "On one hand, maybe we should prepare a funeral and on the other hand, a party."