UPDATED with approval of full cabinet.
By Chris Summers
Contributing Writer
Israel’s cabinet approved a cease-fire deal with Hamas early on Saturday local time, paving the way for a six-week pause in fighting to start on Sunday.
On Friday, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog wrote on X, “I welcome the cabinet’s decision to approve the deal brought forward by the prime minister and the negotiating team. I expect the government to do so soon. This is a vital step on the path to realizing the highest covenant between a state and its citizens.”
“There is no greater moral, human, Jewish, and Israeli obligation,” he added.
On Thursday, Netanyahu delayed the cabinet vote on the Gaza cease-fire after accusing Hamas of reneging on parts of the agreement in a bid “to extort last-minute concessions.”
Israel and Hamas have been at war for 15 months, after the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group mounted a cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Many of the hostages have been released, or their bodies repatriated, but 98 are outstanding and under the first part of the three-phase agreement 33 of them will be released during the initial six-week cease-fire, which is due to start on Sunday.
In the early hours of Friday, Netanyahu said he had instructed a special task force to prepare to receive the returning hostages, and had informed their families a deal had been reached.
The cease-fire agreement — which would involve Israeli troops eventually withdrawing from the Gaza Strip — was negotiated over several months in Doha, with the Qatari government acting as mediators.
One of the most controversial aspects of the deal is the release of around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners at the same time as the hostages.
Minister Says Deal ‘Disastrous’
On Friday, the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party is part of the governing coalition, wrote on X, “If the ‘deal’ passes, we will leave the government with a heavy heart and I will leave an office in which I have invested all my strength for the past two years.”
He added, “I love Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will make sure he continues to be prime minister, but I will leave because the deal that was signed is disastrous.”
In 2011, Israel released 1,100 Palestinians including Yahya Sinwar — who would later mastermind the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks — in exchange for a single captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.