TEL AVIV: Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has approved a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza after more than 460 days of war in which Israeli forces have killed more than 46,788 Palestinians and wounded 110,453.
The Israeli government ratified the ceasefire agreement early on Saturday morning after meeting for more than six hours, Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement.
"The Government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages’ release will come into effect on Sunday,” it said.
With the deal bitterly opposed by some Israeli cabinet hardliners, media reports said 24 ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition government voted in favour of the deal while eight opposed it. The Israeli security cabinet had voted in favour of the ceasefire deal earlier on Friday.
Under the deal, the ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase where captives in Gaza are released in exchange for Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, and which opens the way to ending the 15-month-old war.
After the ceasefire was ratified by the cabinet, Israeli authorities released an updated list of 737 Palestinian detainees slated to be freed in the first phase of the agreement, which will take place "not before” 4pm local time (14:00 GMT) on Sunday.
The list includes several members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, who are serving life sentences, The Times of Israel reports.
"So the ceasefire is going ahead,”Al Jazeera’s correspondent Stefanie Dekker said.
"Thirty-three Israeli captives exchanged for around 1,700 Palestinian prisoners over the course of 42 days. But despite the Israeli government having ratified the ceasefire, there remains deep opposition from the right-wing elements of Netanyahu’s cabinet,” Dekker said.
Many people are "sceptical”, Dekker said, and wondering whether the ceasefire will even "get past the first phase”.
Lead negotiator for the US in the ceasefire talks, Brett McGurk, said the White House expected the ceasefire to start on Sunday morning, with three female captives to be released to Israel by Sunday afternoon through the Red Cross.
"We have locked down every single detail in this agreement. We are quite confident … it is ready to be implemented on Sunday,” McGurk said in a television interview from the White House.
After Sunday’s release of captives, McGurk said the deal called for four more female captives to be released after seven days followed by the release of three additional captives every seven days thereafter.
Despite the ceasefire agreement being announced on Wednesday by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US, Israeli attacks on Gaza have continued with almost 120 people killed in the Palestinian enclave since then.
War-torn Gaza should also now see a surge in humanitarian aid. Trucks carrying aid lined up on Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into southern Gaza.
An Egyptian official said an Israeli delegation from the military and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency arrived on Friday in Cairo to discuss the reopening of the Rafah crossing.
Israeli forces will also pull back from many areas in Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be able to return to what remains of their homes in the north of the territory.
Israel’s military has said that as its forces gradually withdraw from specific locations and routes in Gaza, residents will not be allowed to return to areas where troops are present or near the Israel-Gaza border.
The military also warned any threat to Israeli forces "will be met with a forceful response”.
While longer-term questions about post-war Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory and the daunting task of reconstruction, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on Friday that it was ready to assume its "full responsibilities” in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted from a PA statement in which the authority said its staff was "fully prepared to carry out its duties and alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza”.
The PA statement also reiterated the position expressed by the authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas that the group has legal and political jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip, like the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, while the PA exercises partial civil control over the occupied West Bank.
Israeli and Arab media also report that the PA has sent a delegation to Egypt to discuss the management of the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip as the ceasefire comes into effect, with a view to the authority taking over management of the key border point.