Israel’s cabinet voted to approve a deal for the release of around 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Tuesday.
“The Government of Israel, the IDF and the security services will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted to X.
The release of around 150 imprisoned Palestinians is also expected to be part of the deal, according to multiple reports from Israeli news organizations Haaretz and Kan, the national broadcaster, but went unmentioned by Netanyahu.
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Three Americans are expected to be released as part of the agreement, a senior U.S. official told Reuters.
Israel’s Channel 12 news reported the first release of hostages is set for Thursday so long as the Israeli Supreme Court does not move to block the deal, according to the Guardian.
No Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis will be released as part of the deal, AXIOS reported, adding that 300 aid trucks per day would be allowed to enter Gaza during the pause.
Israel expects Hamas may be able to deliver around 30 additional hostages, according to The Times of Israel. Fighting could be delayed an additional day per each group of 10 or so hostages released, Netanyahu confirmed.
In a statement released on Telegram, Hamas confirmed a “truce agreement based on our responsibility towards our patient Palestinian people”...and “to provide relief and heal their wounds.”
The breakthrough was confirmed after both Israel and Hamas indicated earlier on Tuesday that a truce may finally materialize six weeks into the conflict. In its statement, Hamas called the talks “difficult and complex,” but said it had negotiated the release of 50 women and children of the under the age of 19.
“While we announce the arrival of a truce agreement, we affirm that our hands will remain on the trigger, and our victorious battalions will remain on the lookout to defend our people and defeat the occupation and aggression,” the statement said.
“We promise our people that we will remain loyal to their blood, their sacrifices, their patience, their bond, and their aspirations for liberation, freedom, the restoration of rights, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, God willing.”
Israeli officials said that 1,200 people were killed in the massacres sparked by the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel and that Palestinian groups had taken around 240 others—including children—as hostages.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and began a series of unprecedented strikes on Gaza which, according to the local health ministry, have left over 13,000 people dead. Israel has also arrested a further 3,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
Since the conflict began, international humanitarian organizations have demanded a ceasefire and called for the immediate release of all hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly rejected previous proposed deals and said publicly that there would be no lasting ceasefire without all of the captives being released.
Earlier Tuesday, promising signs emerged from both sides that the deadlock around a deal may be about to break. Netanyahu said that “progress” had been made and that he hoped there would be “good news soon,” according to comments released by his office. Qatar-based Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh similarly told Reuters that his group’s officials were “close to reaching a truce agreement” and said Hamas had given its response to Qatari mediators.
Netanyahu’s office also explicitly said that Israel’s war cabinet would be convened Tuesday afternoon “in light of developments in the matter of the release of our hostages.”
Israeli lawmakers have been pressured in recent weeks by the families of captives to ensure that their loved ones come home safely. The families’ fury was on display at a parliamentary committee session Monday in which they accused some politicians of caring more about prosecuting the fight against Hamas rather than saving the lives of the hostages. Hard-right lawmakers retaliated by screaming at the families and even accusing them of being exploited by Hamas.
On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that its president, Mirjana Spoljaric, had met with Haniyeh and Qatari authorities to “advance humanitarian issues” related to the conflict. The statement noted that while the ICRC has not been involved in negotiations for the release of hostages, “we remain ready to facilitate any future release that the parties to the conflict agree to, as ICRC staff have already done on two occasions.”
The ICRC helped to facilitate the release of four hostages so far: U.S. nationals Judith Raanan and her teenage daughter Natalie, on Oct. 20, and a pair of elderly Israeli neighbors, Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, the following week.
Tuesday’s agreement will come as a welcome reprieve to those battling against the mounting humanitarian disaster inside Gaza. Nearly 1.7 million people have been displaced in the enclave since the conflict erupted, according to the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees, with almost 930,000 taking shelter in just 156 U.N.-run refuges. That means that around two-thirds of Gaza’s population are now homeless, with the massive surge in homelessness occurring at the same time that an Israeli siege has starved the Strip of fuel, medicines, and water. Gaza’s medical system has also collapsed with all of the hospitals in the north no longer functioning amid Israeli barrages and raids. The Israeli military maintains that Hamas uses hospitals and other civilian infrastructure to cover their tunnels and operations centers—a charge that Hamas denied.
