Israeli vote on Gaza ceasefire deal delayed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a vote to approve the Gaza ceasefire agreement, scheduled for Thursday, accusing Hamas of seeking last-minute changes to the agreement.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a “loose end” was being tied up and he was confident the ceasefire would begin on Sunday as planned.

Although Israeli negotiators agreed to the deal after months of talks, it cannot be implemented until it is approved by the security cabinet and government.

Hamas said it was committed to the deal, but the BBC understands it was trying to add some of its members to the list of Palestinian prisoners who would be released under the deal.

The delay came after fresh Israeli strikes in Gaza following Wednesday’s announcement of a deal killed more than 80 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

A few hours before the meeting scheduled for Thursday morning, Netanyahu accused Hamas of trying to “extort with last-minute concessions.”

The cabinet would not meet until Hamas accepted “all elements of the agreement,” according to a statement from his office.

Blinken said such a delay was to be expected in such a “challenging” situation.

“It’s not exactly surprising that in a process and a negotiation that has been so challenging and tense, there is a loose end left,” he said at a news conference in Washington.

“We’re tying up that loose end as we speak.”

He said the United States was “confident” that the agreement would take effect on Sunday as planned and that the ceasefire would persist then.

Israeli media reported that the cabinet was expected to meet on Friday to approve the deal and that the alleged issue had been resolved, although this was not officially confirmed.

Most Israeli ministers are expected to back the deal, but late on Thursday Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said his right-wing party would leave Netanyahu’s government if it was approved.

“The agreement that is taking shape is a reckless agreement,” Ben-Gvir said at a news conference, adding that it would “erase the achievements of the war.”

However, he said his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party would not seek to overthrow the government if the agreement was ratified.

He urged the leader of the other far-right party in government, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist party, to join him in resigning.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group was committed to the deal announced by mediators.

The head of the Hamas delegation, Khalil al-Hayya, officially informed Qatar and Egypt of his approval of all the terms of the agreement, the official told the BBC.

But the BBC’s Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf understands that Hamas was attempting to add the names of one or two symbolic members to the list of prisoners who would be released under the deal.

In the first six-week phase of the agreement, 33 hostages – including women, children and the elderly – would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Israeli troops would also withdraw eastward, away from the densely populated areas of Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians could begin returning to their homes and hundreds of aid trucks would be allowed into the territory each day.

Negotiations for the second phase – which should see the remaining hostages released, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and a return to “sustainable calm” – would begin on the 16th.

The third and final stage would involve returning the bodies of the remaining hostages and rebuilding Gaza, something that could take years.

Israeli airstrikes continued after the deal was announced on Wednesday. At least 12 people died in Gaza City, where a doctor told BBC staff he “didn’t rest for a minute” during the “bloody night.”

Strikes have been carried out on 50 targets in Gaza since the deal was announced, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said in a statement.

Qatar’s prime minister, who mediated the negotiations, called for “calm” from both sides before the start of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas, which is banned as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and others, in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and 251 others. They were injured. taken hostage.

More than 46,788 people have died in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have also been displaced, there is widespread destruction and severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter, as aid agencies struggle to get aid to those in need.

Israel says 94 of the hostages are still being held by Hamas, and 34 of them are presumed dead. There are four Israelis who were kidnapped before the war, two of whom are dead.