Israel Kills 82 In Gaza After Ceasefire Announcement

Cairo: Israel airstrikes killed at least  8 2 people in Gaza overnight on Thursday, residents and authorities in the enclave said, hours after a ceasefire and hostage release deal was announced to bring an end to 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.

The complex ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US to stop the war that has devastated the coastal territory and inflamed the Middle East.

The deal, scheduled to be implemented from Sunday, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed. Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls the enclave, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.

The deal also paves the way for a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, where the majority of the population has been displaced and is facing acute food shortages, food security experts warned late last year.

Rows of aid trucks were lined up in the Egyptian border town of El-Arish waiting to cross into Gaza, once the border was reopened.

Israel's acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country's security cabinet and government, and a vote was slated for Thursday, an Israeli official said.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed the meeting, accusing Hamas of making last-minute demands and going back on agreements.

"The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

Hamas senior official Izzat el-Reshiq said on Thursday the group is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by mediators on Wednesday.

Hard-liners in Netanyahu's government were still hoping to stop the deal, though a majority of ministers were expected to back it.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism Party said in a statement that its condition for remaining in the government would be a return to fighting at the end of the first phase of the deal, in order to destroy Hamas and bring all the hostages back. Far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also threatened to quit the government if the ceasefire is approved.

In Jerusalem, some Israelis marched through the streets carrying mock coffins in protest at the ceasefire, blocking roads and scuffling with police.

Despite the hold-up to the cabinet meeting, political commentators said the latest delay would likely be resolved and that the ceasefire was a done deal.

The White House also downplayed reports of a snag in the ceasefire deal on Thursday. Jonathan Finer, the deputy national security adviser, said in an interview with CNN: "We fully expect the deal to be implemented ."

Calls for faster implementation

For some Palestinians, the deal could not come soon enough.

"We lose homes every hour. We demand for this joy not to go away, the joy that was drawn on our faces -- don't waste it by delaying the implementation of the truce until Sunday,"  said Gaza  r esident Mahmoud Abu Wardeh.

The accord requires 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the ceasefire, with 50 carrying fuel. The first phase of the agreement will also see Israel releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including many long-serving  fighters.

Israelis may find it hard to see Palestinian militants who were serving life sentences for their involvement in deadly attacks in their country, set free.

But successive surveys have shown broad support among the public for a deal that would see the hostages released, even at what is seen as a heavy price.

"This has to be the only choice that we take in order to continue surviving as a state and as a nation, knowing that we will do anything to save each other," said Jerusalem resident Chava Treitel.

While people celebrated the pact in Gaza and Israel, Israel's military conducted more attacks, the civil emergency service and residents said.

Around half of the dead were women and children, Zaher Al-Wahedi, head of the ministry said. He said the toll could rise as hospitals update their records.

Israel secured major gains over Iran and its  allies, mainly Hezbollah, as the Gaza conflict spread. In Gaza, however, Hamas may have been crippled, but without an alternative administration in place, it has been left standing.

Reacting to the news of the ceasefire, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei commended the "sacrifices and valor" of Palestinians and their resistance in the face of the year-long "Israeli aggression" that resulted in a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and "forced the regime to back down."

"It will be written in books that one day, a Zionist group massacred thousands of women and children in the most horrific way and at the end, they were quashed," he said in a post on X.

The ceasefire will halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanized Gaza, killed over 46,000 people, and displaced most of the tiny enclave's pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The truce is likely to defuse tensions across the wider Middle East.

With 98 foreign and Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, phase one of the deal entails the release of 33 of them, including all women, children and men over 50.

Potential pitfalls

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250.  

Under the deal reached 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.

Israel has come under heavy international criticism over the civilian toll in Gaza. 

The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations brought by South Africa that Israel has committed genocide. The International Criminal Court, a separate body also based in The Hague, has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the war.

Israel and the United States have condemned the actions taken by both courts.