The ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will take effect at 08:30 (06:30 GMT) on Sunday, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman announced in a post on X.
The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 08:30 on Sunday morning, based on an agreement between the parties. “We advise our brothers to exercise caution, extreme caution, and await instructions from official sources,” spokesman Majid Al-Ansari said in a tweet on Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli government ratified the agreement after more than six hours of meetings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement.
But hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect, Netanyahu said the Gaza ceasefire agreement could be temporary and Israel reserves the right to resume the Gaza fighting. “If we have to return to the fight, we will do it in new, bold ways,” Netanyahu said in a video statement on Saturday — his first speech since announcing the ceasefire deal on Wednesday.
Netanyahu said he has the support of both the Biden and Trump administrations. He said President Trump and President Biden have fully supported Israel’s right to return to the fight if Israel concludes that negotiations on Phase B are futile.
Earlier, he had threatened that his country would not move forward with the ceasefire until it received a list of the 33 prisoners expected to be released in the first phase of the deal.
“In his speech, he [Netanyahu] presented it as if it were his victory and Israel’s victory, saying that we have the upper hand, and we have changed the face and reality of the Middle East,” Stephanie Decker reported from Amman, Jordan.
“He represented it as if Israel had gotten this deal, that Israel had to recognize Hamas on certain conditions, that Israel had to convince Hamas to agree to this deal because of the Israeli military attack on the group.”
The deal was approved after more than 460 days of war in which Israeli forces have killed more than 46,788 Palestinians and wounded 110,453. It will see the release of 33 prisoners held in Gaza over the next six weeks, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel.
The remaining male soldiers will be released in a second phase, to be negotiated in the first phase.
Hamas has said it will not release the remaining prisoners without a lasting ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal.
“All eyes are now on Gaza to see what the Israeli army is going to do in these final hours, because historically, before any kind of ceasefire agreement, the Israeli army shelled the Gaza Strip with all its might,” Al Jazeera’s Hamda said, reporting from Salah, Jordan.
“There will be a lot of fear and anxiety.”
Naim Qassem, the head of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, congratulated the Palestinians on reaching the agreement, saying it proved the “perseverance of the resistance” against Israel.
He said the agreement, which was proposed in May 2024 and had not been changed, proved the perseverance of the resistance groups, who took what they wanted while Israel was unable to take what it wanted.
In November, Hezbollah and Israel agreed to a ceasefire in a conflict that parallels Israel’s war on Gaza.
The deal
The three-phase ceasefire begins with an initial six-week phase in which Palestinian prisoners held by Hamas will be exchanged with prisoners held by Israel.
In this phase, 33 Israeli prisoners, including women, children, men over 50, and the sick and wounded, are to be released. In return, Israel will release about 1,900 Palestinians, including women and children, since the start of the war, as well as hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza.
The Israeli Justice Ministry published the details of the ceasefire agreement earlier this week, saying that 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for every woman held by Israel on Sunday.
The deal has been opposed by some hardliners in the Israeli cabinet, including National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gweir. Opponents say the ceasefire agreement is a concession to Hamas.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Ben-Governor resigned from Netanyahu’s cabinet in protest at the deal. Ben-Governor had said earlier on Saturday that he would not topple the government. Al Jazeera, however, could not independently confirm the reports of his resignation.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has also threatened to leave the government if it does not go back to war to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire.
Israeli attacks on Gaza continue.
Israeli forces continue heavy attacks in Gaza.
Medics in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike early Saturday killed five people in the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” area, west of Khan Younis, south of the enclave.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that a man from the Qadra family was killed in the attack, along with his wife and three children.
An Israeli drone strike late Friday in the Tafah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, also killed three Palestinian civilians, according to Wafa.
This brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment since the announcement of the ceasefire agreement on Wednesday to at least 123.
Meanwhile, according to Israeli police, a knife-wielding attacker seriously wounded a man in Tel Aviv before being shot by an armed civilian. A 30-year-old Israeli was wounded in the attack and is in critical condition in hospital, according to Israeli media.
Many Palestinians displaced from their homes despite the attacks are waiting for a ceasefire.
From Rafah Displaced Mahmoud Sheikh Abid said he was hoping there would be no violations.
“We hope in the name of God that today is the last day of the war. People are tired. We are tired of being displaced, of diseases, of hunger, of fatigue.”
Another Palestinian refugee, Tariq Zamlut, said he could not wait to return to his home in Jabaliya.
“We will return to our home and visit our family and friends. We hope that we will have silence and safety.