Israel’s cabinet approves Gaza deal with Hamas

After the breakthrough in negotiations over a settlement to the Gaza war, the Israeli cabinet also approved the agreement with the Islamist Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced this after a meeting lasting several hours on Friday night. Despite the resistance of some right-wing extremist members of the government, the cabinet’s majority decision was expected. The Israeli security cabinet had previously met for consultations.

Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on the first phase of the peace plan recently presented by US President Donald Trump during indirect talks in the Egyptian coastal town of Sharm el-Sheikh. In addition to the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey also took part in the negotiations as mediators. The Hamas leadership declared the Gaza war over after the breakthrough in negotiations in Egypt.

Almost at the same time as the statement from Netanyahu’s office, the White House announced that the USA wanted to support compliance with the desired ceasefire between Israel and Hamas with its own troops. The US military command center responsible for the region (Centcom) will provide 200 soldiers, but they will not be deployed in the Gaza Strip, senior US government officials said in a telephone call with reporters.

The aim is to set up a joint control center in which armed forces from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and probably also the United Arab Emirates will also be involved, it said. The center should bring together the various security forces and coordinate operations with the Israeli army. Where exactly the soldiers will be stationed is still being determined and will be announced later.

The agreement stipulates that all hostages held by Hamas and other Islamist terrorist organizations should be handed over. There are still 48 hostages in the Gaza Strip, of which, according to Israeli information, 20 are still alive – including German citizens. According to Israeli media, the hostages could be released on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. The peace plan calls for a deadline of 72 hours after the agreement comes into force.

“We have fought these two years to achieve our war goals,” said Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during the cabinet meeting alongside US special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. “One of the central goals of the war is the return of the hostages, all hostages, the living and the dead. And we are in the process of achieving this goal.”