Israel’s Cabinet has approved a ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Saturday, one day before the deal is set to go into effect.
The ceasefire will bring the parties one step closer to ending the deadliest and most destructive fighting between them, 15 months after the conflict began.
The government ratified the agreement in the early hours of Saturday following a meeting that lasted more than six hours, according to Netanyahu’s office in a statement.
Despite opposition from some hardline cabinet members, a six-week ceasefire is set to go into effect on Sunday, which will include the first round of exchanges between Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The agreement could pave the way for an end to the 15-month war in Gaza.
According to media reports, 24 ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition government voted in favor of the agreement, while eight opposed it.
On Friday, Israel’s security cabinet voted in favor of the ceasefire agreement, the first of two approvals required.
Qatari and U.S. negotiators announced the ceasefire on Wednesday, but the agreement was delayed for more than a day after Prime Minister Netanyahu cited last-minute obstacles that he blamed on Hamas.
Under the three-phase agreement, in the first six-week phase, Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages, including all women (both soldiers and civilians), children, and men over 50 years old.
There are still questions that remain, including the names of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase and which of them are still alive.
Netanyahu instructed a special task force to prepare for the return of hostages from Gaza, and said their families had been informed that an agreement had been reached.
Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under the age of 19 held in Israeli prisons by the end of the first phase.
The war between Israeli forces and Hamas has flattened much of Gaza, killed more than 46,000 people, and displaced most of the population of the 2.3 million-strong enclave, according to local authorities.
If successful, the ceasefire could help ease the situation in the Middle East.
On Friday in Gaza, Israeli warplanes continued heavy airstrikes, and Palestinian civil emergency services reported that 116 Palestinians, nearly 60 of them women and children, have been killed since the announcement of the agreement on Wednesday.
