Israel-Hamas Ceasefire: Netanyahu Cabinet Won't Meet To Approve Truce; 81 Gazans Killed Today

ꦍIn a major breakthrough, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire from Sunday onwards. This ceasefire will be carried out in phases. The first phase will last for six weeks.

❀Amid celebrations in Gaza and across the world for a ceasefire, Israeli attacks have continued in the war-torn strip.

☂As per reports, immediately after the announcement of a ceasefire, Israeli warplanes continued to strike hospitals, shelters and homes with direct air strikes.

🧸In Kahn Younis, where Gazans were out celebrating the ceasefire, two people were killed in an Israeli air strike.

﷽Shortly after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was confirmed, reactions from world leaders began to pour in.

ඣTaking to X, UK PM Keir Starmer stated that the truce is "long-overdue news that Israeli and Palestinian people have been waiting for". In his statement, the Labour leader called for a surge of aid into the Gaza Strip and West Bank and an ultimate two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

🌞Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. "It should put an end to the conflict, allow for the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza to be addressed and for the release of all hostages," he said on X.

൩"This agreement is crucial to achieving regional stability. It represents an indispensable step on the path towards a two-state solution and a just peace that respects international law," Sanchez added further.

😼Yemeni militant group the Houthis have welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

🥃“This did not dampen resolve, but rather motivated and encouraged us to assume the responsibility of supporting Gaza, which is a religious and humanitarian responsibility for which the entire nation is responsible," said Mohammed Abdul Salam, the spokesperson for the group.

🐽“The Israeli invasion of Gaza left no room for our dear people, who are saturated with the spirit of faith, to participate and support in fulfilling their responsibility towards an oppressed people who are being subjected to genocidal massacres before the eyes and ears of the entire world.”

The ceasefire in Gaza will be carried out in three phases. As per a press brief from US President Joe Biden ﷽and Qatari PM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani - the first phase of the ceasefire will last for six weeks.

﷽During this, Hamas will release Isralei hostages - women, children, elderly and the wounded - in exchange of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Aid will also be sent into Gaza and no military operations will be allowed during the ceasefire period.

ꦡTowards the end of the phase one, the details and negotiations for Phase 2 will be finalised. However, as per Biden, the ceasefire will remain in place even if the negotiation period extends six weeks.

𒁏The second phase will work towards the permanent end of the war in Gaza with the release of more hostages and a withdrawal of Israeli troops in the region.

ཧPhase three, once reached, will include the handover of the mortal remains of Israeli hostages and soldiers and the beginning of the reconstruction of Gaza.

💖The last ceasefire in Gaza was held in November. From November 24 to December 1, 2023, Israel and Hamas observed their first ceasefire since the start of the war in October 2023.

🥃During this truce, around 110 hostages were released and handed over to Israel. The ceasefire was initially for three days but was later extended to a week as negotiations continued.

🎐However, during this ceasefire, several violations were committed from both sides, resulting in the war resuming.

🤡"We are relieved to hear that a ceasefire deal has been reached after 15 months of genocidal war in Gaza. The Maldives expresses its profound appreciation to the countries that have facilitated this agreement. We urge the international community to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire, allowing the return home of those displaced, and access to humanitarian assistance. We call on Israel to pay reparations to Palestine. And urge the international community to provide Palestine with the urgent support it needs to rebuild after the devastation caused by the Israeli aggression," the Maldivian president stated on X.

President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump ☂are both claiming credit for Israel and Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire deal in Gaza on Wednesday after the White House brought Trump's Middle East envoy into negotiations that have dragged on for months.

𝐆Trump wasted no time in asserting he was the moving force behind the deal. Biden, meanwhile, stressed that the deal was reached under “the precise contours” of a plan that he set out in late May.

🌄“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” Trump wrote on social media. “I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.”

📖Biden said from the White House that "my diplomacy never ceased in their efforts to get this done.”

🎃“It is the result not only of the extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran - but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy,” Biden said.

(AP Inputs)

𓂃Welcoming the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, UN Chief Antonio Guterres described the deal as a "critical first step” and urged the parties to “seize this opportunity” to establish a credible political path to a better future for Palestinians, Israelis and the broader region.

🍰“I welcome the announcement of a deal to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza,” UN Secretary-General Guterres said on Wednesday.

⛎Guterres commended the mediators — Egypt, Qatar, and the United States — for their dedicated efforts in brokering this deal.

🧜India on Thursday welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

꧅"We welcome the announcement of the agreement for the release of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

꧃"We have consistently called for release of all hostages, ceasefire, and return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy," it said.

🦋Since the announcement of the truce between Israel and Hamas, attacks from Israeli forces have killed at least 30 Palestinians.

💦Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said Israeli warplanes intensified raids across multiple areas of Gaza shortly after the truce announcement. One strike near the Engineers' Syndicate in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of western Gaza City, killed 18 people and injured 20 others.

🦄Furthermore, seven Palestinians were killed in a strike on a house in northern Gaza, and three more were killed in a strike targeting a home in the Al-Daraj area in eastern Gaza City. Two more fatalities were recorded in an attack on a house in the Qizan Rashwan area south of the city.

US President-elect Donald Trump has had his way. His advice to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "do whatever it takes" to finish off the Gaza operations ahead of his inauguration on January 20 has been heeded by the Israeli leader, bringing to a close 15 months of blood-letting𒁏 on the people of Gaza triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.  

🦄The three-stage peace deal overseen by Qatar, the US, and Egypt is on the lines announced last year by President Joe Biden, but it had got stuck thanks to the lack of political capital. The death toll at that time was 36,000 as compared to 46,700 today.

🎶The ceasefire will come into effect on Sunday, January 19, and will ensure the release of the first batch of 33 Israeli hostages and an estimated 1000  Palestinian prisoners, mostly women, children and the elderly not involved in violence.

In true Trump fashion the announcement of the ceasefire deal was confirmed by the President-elect on his social media account before either the Qatari negotiators or the White House could do so. Read more on the role Donald Trump may have played in the ceasefire.

🌊After confirmation of the truce deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel's cabinet will be voting on the agreement and the details of the phases of ceasefire.

ꦍIf approved, the deal would free the remaining Israeli hostages who have been in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023. A number of Palestinians being held in Israel would also be freed.

🌼South Africa‘s government has welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas and called for “the implementation of a just and lasting peace that ensures the human rights of both Palestinians and Israelis are protected and promoted”.

♔South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and accused the Jewish state of committing genocide in Gaza.

🎃US President-elect Donald Trump has taken credit for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. Taking to Truth Social, the Republican leader was one of the first to announce an agreement had been reached, even before the Qatar PM and Joe Biden could confirm the news.

🌠During the press conference, Biden stated that the framework of the ceasefire is similar to the one he proposed before the United Nations In May 2024.

ౠThe ceasefire will follow a three phase plan, which culminates with the end of the war and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

ꦉThe call of Eretz Israel, the biblical ‘promised land’, is one that both the secularists and the religious Zionists of Israel have heeded, at the cost of the people of that land

Read more here

⭕Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday his Cabinet won't meet to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal until Hamas backs down from what it called a “last minute crisis.”

ღNetanyahu's office accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt “to extort last minute concessions.” It did not elaborate.

𝔍The Israeli Cabinet was set to ratify the deal Thursday.

🐷Hamas official Izzat el-Reshiq reportedly on a post on Telegram has confirmed that the group is “committed to the ceasefire agreement” in Gaza as outlined by mediators Qatar and the United States.

𝔍This statement comes after Netanyahu said that his cabinet is unsure of meeting over the ceasefire deal because Hamas is backing down from a 'last minute crisis'.

ꦺAt least 73 Palestinians, including 20 children and 25 women, have been killed and more than 230 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza since the announcement of the latest ceasefire agreement, according to the enclave’s civil defence.

𓄧About 61 of those killings came in Gaza City, the rescue service said.

- Al Jazeera

🌜Under the new deal of freeing hostages that was reached on Wednesday, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

🎃Israeli forces will pull back from many areas, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be able to return to what's left of their homes, and there would be a surge of humanitarian assistance.

💧The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second — and much more difficult — phase that will be negotiated during the first. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory.

ไPresident Aoun of Lebanon welcomed Gaza’s ceasefire deal, expressing hope that it would lead to an end to “the tragic reality in the Strip”.

🃏But in a statement posted on X he added: “Serious commitment by Israel needs to be followed up, as it has accustomed us to evading its obligations and disavowing international resolutions.”

- The Times

♒The Gaza Health Ministry on Thursday informed that the Israeli attacks in Gaza over the last 24 hours have killed at least 81 people and injured 188.

𒁏This brings the total toll of the war in Gaza to 46,788 killed and 110,453 injured, it added.

ꦆThe UK government on Thursday welcomed a “long overdue” ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, even as both sides continue to finalise the precarious pact expected to involve an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the start of the Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza in its first phase.

✤British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the news was what the Israeli and Palestinian people had been waiting for and said the ceasefire must now allow for a “huge surge” in humanitarian aid needed to end the suffering in Gaza.

🎃He reiterated the UK’s support for a “two-state solution” to guarantee security and stability in the region.

💯“After months of devastating bloodshed and countless lives lost, this is the long-overdue news that the Israeli and Palestinian people have desperately been waiting for,” said Starmer.

🎃“They have borne the brunt of this conflict – triggered by the brutal terrorists of Hamas, who committed the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023.

🐟"The hostages, who were brutally ripped from their homes on that day and held captive in unimaginable conditions ever since, can now finally return to their families,” he said.

⛎He went on to pay tribute to those who won’t make it home, including the British people who were killed in the attack.

𒊎“For the innocent Palestinians whose homes turned into a warzone overnight and the many who have lost their lives, this ceasefire must allow for a huge surge in humanitarian aid, which is so desperately needed to end the suffering in Gaza.

𒁏“And then our attention must turn to how we secure a permanently better future for the Israeli and Palestinian people – grounded in a two-state solution that will guarantee security and stability for Israel, alongside a sovereign and viable Palestine state,” he said.

🥃A group representing some families of Israeli soldiers killed fighting in Gaza held a demonstration on Thursday against a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

🌳The Gvura Forum opposed the deal, saying it won't lead to Hamas' destruction and that it will free Palestinians convicted of deadly crimes against Israelis.

🅘The agreement could also leave some Israeli hostages behind in Gaza if it collapses, the group said.

ꦑThe group also set up rows of mock coffins draped in the Israeli flag in Jerusalem to symbolise the 'price' Israel will pay if it agrees to the deal.

൩"It's a very dangerous deal," said Yehoshua Shani, whose son Ori Mordehai Shani was killed in battle in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

🀅Russia has praised the deal between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire in Gaza.

𒅌“Any settlement that brings about a ceasefire, alleviates the suffering of the people in Gaza, and enhances Israel’s security is something we can only welcome,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

♔But he emphasised it would be premature to offer congratulations to the warring parties. “Let us wait for the process to be fully finalised.”

- Al Jazeera

𝄹Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his cabinet will not meet as scheduled to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal, blaming Hamas for causing a “last-minute crisis”.

🌟The Israeli cabinet was set to meet on Thursday morning to ratify the deal, with the ceasefire scheduled to take effect from Sunday.

According to the Israel’s broadcaster Kan, one of the reasons behind the postponement of the meeting could be that far-right Finance Minister
😼Bezalel Smotrich had not yet informed Netanyahu whether his party will leave the government in protest against the planned agreement.

- Al Jazeera

𓃲In its reaction, India hoped that the agreement would lead to a safe and sustained supply of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

♓"We welcome the announcement of the agreement for the release of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ"We hope this will lead to a safe and sustained supply of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza," it said in a statement.

༒The MEA added: "We have consistently called for release of all hostages, ceasefire, and return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy."