Israel’s security cabinet voted late thursday to approve a cease-fire and hostage release agreement with Hamas, ending the war in Gaza after two years and two days of fighting.
The cabinet’s approval of the Israel-Hamas agreement officially set the cease-fire process in motion after battle had been ongoing in the hours leading up to the vote.
The cease-fire will formally go into effect 24 hours after the agreement was approved. Hamas will then have 72 hours to return all Israeli hostages.
The Israel Defense Forces will next begin to pull back to agreed-upon lines in Gaza, and Hamas will release the remaining 48 hostages — about 20 of whom remain alive — early next week.
Mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, celebrates the deal. Getty Images
Israel’s security cabinet approved the deal early Friday morning local time. AFP via Getty Images
Relatives and friends of Israeli hostages celebrate the Gaza ceasefire deal. Xinhua/Shutterstock
The peace plan — unveiled by President Trump on Sept. 29 — has been under negotiation since Monday and the final agreement was ultimately reached with Hamas on Wednesday night.
It took the Israeli security cabinet more than six hours to come to a consensus on the deal, with officials working late into the night to hammer out details.
Here’s the latest on the Gaza cease-fire deal
- Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump address cheering crowds in Tel Aviv to celebrate peace deal
- 200 US soldiers arrive in Israel, as Witkoff confirms IDF troops completed first phase of withdrawal from Gaza
- Trump set to fly to Israel to mark historic peace deal while preparing public for grim hostage release
- Putin chides Nobel winners who ‘did nothing for peace’ — tries to cozy up to Trump with Gaza deal praise
- American military to oversee initial Gaza peacekeeping force — but ‘no US troops are intended to go into Gaza’
“We are very much thrilled that finally at least 20 of the live hostages will be able to be back in the arms of their loving family. The next few days, maybe the families of the hostages, the 28 will be able to bury their loved ones,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sherren Haskell told The Post.
“And that has a huge significance and meaning to our entire country.”
But Israel must pay a great price — releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that launched the now two-year-old war, Haskell said.
Israel and Hamas previously held cease-fire negotiations for the return of all hostages, but earlier peace deals were ultimately unsuccessful.
Haskel said a combination of factors — particularly the international cooperation built by President Trump — made this deal different.
“The fact that he was capable of gathering everybody together, whether it was Israel, the Arab countries, even the Palestinian Authority approved Trump’s peace plan,” Haskel said. “… That was the difference — immense pressure, the delicate navigation of President Trump, the military pressure that Israel put on Hamas, all these factors played a huge part in bringing this deal.”
