Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal reached, Israel PM’s office says

‘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 hostage 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.

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.