Netanyahu announces Hamas hostage & ceasefire deal WILL be signed off by Israel after talks almost collapsed last minute
ISRAEL has announced the ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas will finally be signed.
It comes after Israel accused Hamas terrorists of “last-minute blackmail" on Thursday sparking fears the deal could collapse.
The Israeli cabinet is set to meet this morning to give final approval to the deal, the PM's Netanyahu's office said.
But in the early hours today, Netanyahu's office said approval was imminent.
His office said: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed by the negotiating team that agreements have been reached on a deal to release the hostages."
The security cabinet would meet on Friday before a full meeting of the cabinet on Saturday to approve the deal.
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This pushes back the release of the first batch of hostages to Monday.
Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes in Gaza and Palestinian authorities said late on Thursday that at least 86 people were killed the day after the truce was announced.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said Washington believed the agreement was on track and a ceasefire in the 15-month-old conflict was expected to proceed "as soon as late this weekend".
";We are seeing nothing that would tell us that this is going to get derailed at this point," he said on CNN on Thursday.
While the world breathed a sigh of relief when the agreement was reached, hours later Israel accused Hamas of reneging on key parts of the complex deal.
A spokesman for Netanyahu's office said on Thursday: "Hamas is backing out of the explicit understandings agreed upon with the mediators and Israel in a last-minute blackmail attempt.
"Israel will not set a date for a cabinet and government meeting until the mediators announce that Hamas has approved all the details of the agreement."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a "loose end" in the negotiations needed to be resolved.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this was a dispute over the identities of some prisoners Hamas wanted released.
The deal consists of three phases including the release of hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Among those set to be released is the last remaining British hostage Emily Damari, 28.
A group representing families of Israeli hostages in Gaza, 33 of whom are due to be freed in the first six-week phase of the accord, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward quickly.
THREE-PHASE AGREEMENT
The ceasefire is built around a three-phase plan aiming to put an end to the conflict in the Middle East.
The first phase involves a complete six-week ceasefire that includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops from central Gaza.
It will focus on the release of 33 hostages, including women, children, and the elderly, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The hostages released in the initial 42 days are reportedly those in critical condition - including one-year-old Kfir Bibas.
The next to be freed will be female civilians and female soldiers before finally the remaining civilian men, Channel 12 reports.
Humanitarian aid is expected to flood the region, with 600 trucks of supplies entering Gaza daily.
An end to the war is the goal of the second stage as the temporary ceasefire is set to become permanent.
The second phase will see Hamas release the remaining hostages, primarily male soldiers, in exchange for further prisoner releases and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners are set to be freed - including at least 250 terrorists - in return for the hostages, Times of Israel reports.
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In the third and final phase, the bodies of hostages who did not survive captivity will be returned to their families.
In exchange, Gaza would receive a three- to five-year reconstruction plan overseen by international authorities.
What happened on October 7?
ON OCTOBER 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel, marking one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.
Terrorists stormed across the border from Gaza, killing over 1,200 people — most of them civilians — and kidnapping 250 others, including women, children, and the elderly.
The coordinated assault saw heavily armed fighters infiltrate Israeli towns, kibbutzim, and military bases, unleashing indiscriminate violence.
Innocent families were slaughtered in their homes, and graphic footage of the atrocities spread across social media, leaving the world in shock.
The massacre triggered a swift and massive retaliatory response from Israel, escalating into a full-scale war.
The attack not only reignited long-standing tensions in the region but also left deep scars on both sides of the conflict, setting the stage for the 15 months of devastation that followed.