Mediator Qatar announced on Saturday that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas would take effect the next day, beginning final preparations for a truce that much of the world hopes will end 15 months of destruction in Gaza.
The agreement is due to enter into force at 8:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, said Majid al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar's foreign ministry, which has been battling for months to reach a deal with the United States and Egypt.
The Israeli government approved the deal early Saturday after hours of discussions and amid internal divisions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition. The approval cleared the last hurdle, raising hopes for Israelis who want to see their loved ones return and for Gazans who have survived one of the most intense bombing campaigns of the 21st century.
“It's a mixture of joy, sadness and longing for a new beginning,” said Mariam Moeen Awwad, 23, who has been displaced from her home in northern Gaza six times since the war began.
Mrs. Awad had planned to move into her newly furnished apartment with her husband in November 2023. The war disrupted those plans, leaving the couple in a crowded estate and eager to return home, she said, “if it's still there.”
Authorities in Israel have begun preparations to welcome dozens of hostages home, unaware that they will return malnourished, traumatized or dead.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first speech since the ceasefire was approved, said in an address on Saturday night that 33 hostages would be released in the first phase of the deal, “many of them alive.”
Defending the deal, he also cited Israel's major strategic gains over the past few months, including the killing of senior Hamas leaders. “As I promised you, we have changed the face of the Middle East,” he said.
According to an Israeli military official, three reception points have been established along the Gaza border to receive hostages. They will be Israeli soldiers, as well as doctors and psychologists, said the official, who did not want to be named in accordance with protocol.
The release of the hostages is expected to be the first such major exchange since a week-long ceasefire at the start of the war.
Hajar Mizrahi, a senior official at Israel's health ministry, said of the hostages released during the 2023 ceasefire: “Those released at the time were already malnourished.” “Now imagine their situation after another 400 days. We are extremely worried about this.”
Many of the women, elderly men and other hostages due to be returned are believed to be held in Hamas' network of tunnels in Gaza under conditions that leave physical and psychological scars. Israeli hospitals are developing isolated areas where hostages can begin to recover in privacy.
“Last time we saw the Red Cross moving the hostages, and some of them ran to their relatives and hugged them,” said Einat Yehene, a clinical psychologist who works with the Forum of Hostage Families, an advocacy group. “Given the physical and emotional conditions we expect, this time will not be easy or the same.”
In return, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners should be released. The total number of prisoners to be released and their identities were among the many points of contention in the negotiations for the deal.
The new agreement also calls for 600 aid trucks to be allowed into Gaza daily and for negotiations on the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Those talks are likely to be as bitter and difficult as the months of negotiations that resulted from this week's ceasefire agreement. Mr Netanyahu is already facing an internal revolt within his governing coalition, with his far-right partners threatening to quit over their opposition to the deal.
They called for continued war to root out Hamas, which led the October 2023 attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people and took another 250 hostages and started the war.
Mr. Netanyahu also echoed many Israelis who want all hostages returned and US President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who wants an end to the war. and facing pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump.
In his address, Mr. Netanyahu said the deal preserves Israel's right to return to war against Hamas if it chooses. The deal also allows Israeli forces to remain in a buffer zone along Israel's Gaza and Gaza's border with Egypt, he added, at least initially.
“If we must return to battle, we will do so with new methods and with great force,” he said.
Another uncertainty over how the deal will go comes from the chaotic, squalid conditions in Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war began and hundreds of thousands are homeless, without clean water or ready supplies of food or medicine. .
Israel's campaign has created a power vacuum in much of Gaza, and lawlessness has proven a dangerous factor in efforts to get aid to people in need. There is organized looting repeatedly deprived the trucks of suppliesincluding A convoy of 100 trucks withholding UN aid late last year.
Gaza's health ministry said on Saturday morning that Israel continued to shell Gaza after a ceasefire was declared, killing 23 Palestinians and wounding 83 in the past 24 hours. According to the ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began.
Much-needed aid is expected to be sent to Gaza once the ceasefire begins. Egypt, which borders the enclave, was ramping up preparations to deliver aid, including food and tents, on Friday, according to Egyptian state broadcaster Al Qahera News.