LAST UPDATE | 12 mins ago
GAZA’S CIVIL DEFENCE defence agency said that at least seven people have been killed in fresh Israeli strikes in the Palestinian territory, hours before Israel’s cabinet was set to vote on a ceasefire deal.
“Our crew retrieved 5 dead and more than 10 injured from under the rubble of a house… that was bombed by the Israeli army in the Al-Rimal area west of Gaza City,” the agency said in a statement.
It added it had retrieved the bodies of two more people killed in a strike at “the Al-Sha’biya intersection in the center of Gaza City”.
The strikes come a day after Qatar and the United States announced a ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas that they hope will pave the way for a permanent end to the war in Gaza.
Israeli media has reported that the cabinet is set to vote on the ceasefire agreement this morning at around 11am (9am Irish time).
But just prior to that meeting, Israel accused Hamas of backtracking on parts of the deal.
“Hamas has reneged on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last-minute concessions”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, adding the situation created a “last minute crisis”.
Netanyahu spoke with both US President Joe Biden and Trump yesterday, his office said, thanking them for their help securing the agreement but also cautioning that “final details” were still being hammered out.
The proposed truce would take effect on Sunday and involve the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which the terms of a broader peace deal would be finalised, the prime minister of mediator Qatar said yesterday.
It would cap months of fruitless negotiations to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history, pausing hostilities just days before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, whose Middle East envoy was involved in the talks.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said the deal was the “right move” to bring back hostages seized during the 7 October, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war.
That attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians.
Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
However, two of Netanyahu’s ministers have publicly opposed the ceasefire deal.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and leader of the Religious Zionism party said the agreement was a “bad and dangerous deal for the security of the State of Israel”.
It’s understood that Smotrich met with the Israeli government earlier this morning to decide whether to remain in the government or not.
According to the Israeli media reports, Smotrich did not receive the assurances he requested and has not committed to remaining in government.
His party colleague, Zvi Sukkot, has also told Israeli radio station Kan that his party would likely “resign from the government” should the deal be approved.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has also said he opposed the “disastrous deal”.
Hamas meanwhile said the ceasefire was the “result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip”.
And Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif greeted the announcement of the ceasefire deal by taking off his press protective gear, cheered on by people around him.
مكالمة هاتفية مليئة بالمشاعر الممزوجة بالفرح جمعتنا بالزميل العزيز فادي الوحيدي، الذي يرقد في المستشفى إثر إصابته برصاص قناص إسرائيلي، لتهنئته بوقف العدوان على قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/AxiAXllk7G
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) January 15, 2025
“Now I can finally take off this helmet that has exhausted me through this period.”
Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to cement an agreement.
“We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani .
He added that the three countries would monitor the implementation of the ceasefire via a body based in Cairo.
During the initial 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released, he said, “including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.
Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas to allow for the exchanges, as well as “the return of the displaced people to their residences”, he said.
The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be “finalised” during the initial 42 days, he said.
Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during the 7 October attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Announcing the deal from the White House, Biden said he was “deeply satisfied this day has come”, calling the negotiations some of the “toughest” of his career.
He added that an as-yet unfinalised second phase of the agreement would bring a “permanent end to the war”, saying he was “confident” the deal would hold.
Envoys from both Trump’s incoming administration and Biden’s outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November” in the US election, Trump said on social media.
The president-elect added that his White House would “continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven”.
Biden said the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians and reunite the hostages with their families”.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also underscored the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza as he welcomed news of the deal.
Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera news outlet cited a security source as saying coordination was “underway” to reopen the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow the entry of aid.
The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to take effect later this month, has said it will continue providing much-needed aid.
- © AFP 2025 and with additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper
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