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A cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will start Sunday morning, Qatar’s foreign ministry said, after Israel approved the deal early Saturday.
Implementation of the agreement would pause the 15-month war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis and took some 250 hostages into Gaza. The cease-fire accord includes a six-week pause in hostilities and a hostage-prisoner exchange, according to media reports.
The cease-fire will go into effect on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. local time, a spokesperson from Qatar’s foreign ministry said on X early Saturday.
The deal brokered by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt has three phases, as reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The first stage will see the staggered release of 33 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and more than 700 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
More than 1,100 residents of Gaza “who were not involved in the events” of Oct. 7 and are being held in custody will also be freed, according to the Israeli government. Israeli troops will gradually withdraw from Gaza, allowing international aid to flow in, it said.
Israel’s Cabinet ratified the agreement in the early hours of Saturday, despite opposition from hard-right ministers which threatened to derail the process. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the first exchange of prisoners would take place “as early as Sunday.”
Negotiations for the second phase are due to begin on Day 16 of the cease-fire. The talks would include discussion of a permanent end to the fighting, a total withdrawal of Israel’s armed forces and the release of the remaining hostages.
Phase three would involve the return of dead hostages and the start of a major rebuilding effort in Gaza, which has been devastated by the war. More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past six months and nearly 2 million have been forcibly displaced. Almost 60 percent of buildings in Gaza had been destroyed as of November 2024.
