Israeli government approves Gaza truce and prisoner swap deal

The Israeli government has approved a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap deal with Hamas, TRT World can confirm, marking a significant development which is expected to pause Israel's genocidal war on the besieged Palestinian enclave.

TRT World's Mohammad Al-Kassim reporting from occupied East Jerusalem late on Friday said the vast majority of the Israeli ministers backed the Gaza truce deal and left the meeting.

"This has been a hard fought deal for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier in the day had to sit in the security cabinet and also try to convince his security cabinet to support and back this deal, which they did," Al-Kassim said.

Israel's decision, which will be likely announced by Netanyahu or his office, followed hours after the country's security cabinet, a small forum of senior ministers, endorsed the agreement earlier in the day.

The agreement outlines a six-week ceasefire, beginning with the staggered release of 33 captives held in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian abductees in Israeli custody.

It also includes a partial Israeli military withdrawal and an increase in humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza. During this phase, talks are set to commence on next two phases to end Israel's war in the coastal enclave.

Netanyahu tries to placate far-right allies

During the full cabinet's meeting late on Friday, Israeli media said Netanyahu did not rule out continuing the war on Gaza after the first phase of truce.

"We have received clear guarantees from Presidents Biden and Trump that if negotiations on phase two of the deal fail, and if Hamas does not accept our security demands, we will return to intense fighting with the support of the United States," Netanyahu said during the cabinet meeting, according to the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth.

According to the newspaper, Netanyahu's remarks were intended to placate Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has warned of withdrawing from the government if Israel does not resume fighting after the deal's first phase.

On Thursday, Israel's hardline national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, also threatened to quit the government if Israel approved the ceasefire. He reiterated that on Friday, writing on social media platform X: "If the 'deal' passes, we will leave the government with a heavy heart."

Ben-Gvir's resignation would not bring down the government or derail the deal, but the move would destabilise the government at a delicate moment and could eventually lead to its collapse if Ben-Gvir's extremist party is joined by other key Netanyahu allies.

Israel and Hamas have been under growing pressure from both outgoing US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump to reach a deal before Trump takes office on Monday.

The deal hung in limbo for more than a day as Netanyahu falsely claimed Hamas was creating hurdles in the deal.

Hamas maintained it was committed to the deal, while residents of Gaza and families of the captives anxiously waited to see whether it would materialise.

"Now we have reached the moment of no return, and we are all crossing our fingers," activist Ester Taranto said at a gathering of hostages' families and supporters in Tel Aviv.

Israel's war has destabilised the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.

While the ceasefire modalities were being worked on, more than 100 Palestinian bodies arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours, all killed by Israel.

A three-phase deal

Under the deal, 33 of the hostages are set to be released over six weeks in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The 33 are women, children, men over 50, and sick or wounded people. Hamas has agreed to free three female hostages on Day 1 of the deal, four more on Day 7, and the remaining 26 over the following five weeks.

Israel's Justice Ministry on Friday published a list of 95 Palestinian abductees to be freed in the deal's first phase and said the release will not begin before 4 pm local time on Sunday. All on the list are younger people or female.

Israeli military will pull back from many areas in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be able to return to what's left of their homes, and there would be a surge of humanitarian assistance.

The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second — and much more difficult — phase that will be negotiated during the first.

Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. At the same time, Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory.

Longer-term questions about post-war Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction.

An Egyptian official said an Israeli delegation from the military and Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency arrived in Cairo on Friday to discuss the reopening of the Rafah crossing, a key link between Gaza and Egypt.

An Israeli official confirmed a delegation was going to Cairo to discuss the crossing. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity when discussing the private negotiations.

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza for the last 15 months has claimed over 46,000 Palestinian lives, primarily women and children. More than 110,642 are wounded and some 11,000 are feared buried under debris of bombed homes, according to local health authorities.

Another 11,000 have been abducted by Israel and dumped in Israeli jails and torture chambers.

Studies show the death toll documented by Palestinians is a conservative estimate and far behind the actual death toll, which could be around 200,000.

According to the medical journal The Lancet, some 186,000 may have died since Israel's invasion of Gaza began in October 2023. The Lancet also estimates that the death toll caused by direct Israeli military action in Gaza up to June 2024, was 64,260, 41 percent higher than recorded by Palestinian health officials.

The war has displaced nearly Gaza's entire 2.4 million population and drawn the concern of the world's main hunger monitor. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.