The statement suggested that final approval of the deal could be delayed.
Palestinians families celebrate the ceasefire announcement in Gaza City
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Israelis calling for the release of the hostages held in Gaza embrace in Tel Aviv
ALAMY
People also took to the streets in Saida, Lebanon, and the Tunisian capital, Tunis
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Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh died in captivity in Gaza after being abducted from the Nova music festival during the October 7 attacks, said they welcomed the deal but grieved because it did not come sooner.
“Our beloved son Hersh and so many other innocent civilians should have been saved long ago by a deal like this one,” the bereaved parents add, noting that the deal outline was virtually the same as one presented in May 2024 that failed to make it through rounds of tense negotiations.
“We will struggle with that failure for the rest of our lives,” the couple said in a statement. “But today we celebrate the impending reunifications of the 98 remaining hostages with their loved ones with whom we have been tirelessly advocating and so many of whom have become like family to us during this 467-day struggle.”
The total of 98 Israeli hostages includes four captured before the October 7 attacks as well as those thought to have died in Gaza since then.
Both the outgoing US president, Joe Biden, and the incoming president, Donald Trump, tried to claim credit for the ceasefire deal announced last night.
Trump’s imminent return to the White House may have been decisive in forcing the Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu to confirm a long-awaited agreement. While Trump has publicly threatened Hamas in the run up to his second term, reports suggest that his influence on the negotiations was “the first time there has been real pressure on the Israeli side to accept a deal” (Gabrielle Weiniger writes).
Emily Damari was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023
Relatives of hostages held in Gaza have also expressed relief after months of campaigning for their release.
However, some now face an agonising wait of further days or weeks before being reunited with surviving loved ones.
The family of Emily Damari, a British-Israeli citizen, hopes that she could be among the 33 hostages released in the first phase.
Her mother, Mandy, shared photos of football fans at a match on Wednesday night who had brought messages of support for her daughter, a Tottenham Hotspur fan.
“You have come together to say ‘bring her home’. Thank you,” she wrote on X.
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In the Gaza Strip, those bereaved and displaced by war have been expressing hope and relief for a potential end to the fighting.
Najiya Awda, 57, fled her home in eastern Gaza for the south of the territory, where many of the nearly two million refugees have sought shelter.
“I feel so happy but I am still scared. I have been forced to leave my home more than seven times. I can’t wait to go back to my city and my house,” she told The Times last night.
“Thank God, now we feel a little safer. We are no longer moving our tents from one place to another. Finally, I will see my neighbors and friends again. My joy is so big that I feel like I could fly.
“Today, I left my tent to celebrate with people in Gaza. For the first time in a long time, we feel some hope to rebuild our lives and find peace again.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has also claimed that the proposed ceasefire in Gaza represents a “great victory” for the Palestinian resistance.
“The end of the war and the imposition of a ceasefire on the Zionist regime [Israel] is a clear and great victory for Palestine and a greater defeat for the Zionist regime,” a statement by the IRGC said.
On X, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Palestinian resistance and Iran-backed “Resistance Axis” succeeded in forcing Israel to “retreat”.
Western officials, including the White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, have said that the war between Israel and the Iranian-backed “Resistance Axis” significantly weakened Tehran.
The IRGC commander Hossein Salami boasted last week that Iran’s enemies were having a “false sense of delight” about recent regional developments, including the fall of President Assad’s regime in Syria. He claimed that Tehran’s missile forces were stronger than ever.
A senior Hamas leader has claimed that Israel failed to achieve its goals and was defeated in Gaza as he declared the potential ceasefire-hostage deal a “historic moment”.
“Our people have thwarted the declared and hidden goals of the occupation,” Khalil al-Hayya told the German news agency DPA. “Today we prove that the occupation will never defeat our people and their resistance.”
He praised the Hamas-led massacres of some 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023 that started the war in Gaza as a “military accomplishment” and “a source of pride for our people”.
The deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau also said that the group would continue to pursue Israel’s destruction and hailed its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen for also attacking Israel.
“Our enemy will never see a moment of weakness from us,” he added.
At least 32 people are reported to have been killed last night
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Even as people in Gaza and Israel celebrated the announcement, Israel’s military escalated attacks, the civil emergency service and residents said.
Heavy Israeli bombardment, particularly in Gaza City, killed 32 people late on Wednesday, medics said. The strikes continued early on Thursday and destroyed houses in Rafah in southern Gaza, Nuseirat in central Gaza and in northern Gaza, residents said.
Israel’s military said Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel this morning; there were no casualties.
Hamas has backtracked on an earlier understanding of the ceasefire agreement and is trying to dictate which Palestinian prisoners would be released, the Israeli prime minister’s office said overnight.
Israel has a veto over the release of “mass murderers who are symbols of terror,” the statement said.
The proposed ceasefire agreement would see at least 33 hostages, including women, children and men over the age of 50, released in the coming weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
A potential second phase would see between 30 and 40 male hostages freed in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners.
The released Palestinians will include a number of people convicted of terrorist crimes including murder, but also women and children.
Netanyahu’s statement, released around 3.30am local time, said Hamas “is demanding to dictate the identity of these murderers” and accuses the militant group of seeking “to go back on the understandings” in the agreement.
Israel’s cabinet will vote to approve the ceasefire deal today after the agreement was announced last night by the Qatari prime minister.
Any deal will need to be approved by Binyamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet and then his government.
The hardline security minister Itamar Ben Gvir opposes making any concessions to Hamas and has previously threatened to resign if the deal is approved.
However, a majority of ministers are expected to back the phased ceasefire deal, which details a halt to fighting and the release of hostages in stages.
