Netanyahu confirms that a ceasefire agreement and hostage release has been reached after the latest tensions

Netanyahu has calleda security cabinet meeting for this Friday in order to hold a vote on the agreement, which will be approved the next day, Saturday. “The State of Israel is committed to achieving all the objectives of the war, including the return of all our hostages, both the living and the dead,” reads a statement reported by the ‘Times of Israel’ newspaper.

Hours earlier, the prime minister maintained that “Hamas is reneging on understandings and creating a crisis at the last minute that prevents an agreement,” alleging that retracting what was agreed with the mediators and Israel was “an extortion attempt at the last minute.” Thus, he noted that Israel would not set a date for the cabinet meeting until Hamas approved all the details.

However, several senior officials in Hamas’s political arm immediately reacted to Netanyahu’s words to emphasize that the Palestinian Islamist group “is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by the mediators” and denouncing that the accusations made “are unfounded.” . “The occupation wants to create a state of tension at a critical moment and we demand that it be forced to apply the agreement,” they said.

Furthermore, since the ceasefire agreement was announced, more than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by shelling by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to Gazan authorities.

The agreement, negotiated during months of indirect talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, will be divided into three phases. The first of them will last 42 days and will certify the cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli troops towards the border and the exchange of 33 hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The second phase will consist of the distribution of “safe and effective” humanitarian aid in a large part of the Gaza Strip, devastated after more than 15 months of Israeli offensive. The repair of health centers will also be carried out and civil supplies and fuel will be allowed to enter the enclave. As the first phase is certified, more details of the second and third stages of the pact will be announced.

Israel launched its offensive against Gaza after the aforementioned attacks, which left nearly 1,200 dead and about 250 kidnapped. Since then, more than 46,700 Palestinians have died in the Strip, according to the Gazan authorities, controlled by Hamas, to which are added more than 850 deaths at the hands of security forces and in attacks carried out by settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.