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1 minute ago

Israel-Hamas ceasefire latest: Gaza airstrikes continue as family killed hours ahead of truce deal

The ceasefire deal will now be discussed by Netanyahu’s wider cabinet ahead of Sunday’s hostage release

Bel Trew
Tel Aviv
,Shweta Sharma,Holly Evans
Saturday 18 January 2025 14:10 GMT
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Israel accuses Hamas of backtracking on ceasefire deal

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Airstrikes have continued in Gaza just hours ahead of a ceasefire truce, with a family killed inside the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” and another killed near Khan Younis.

On Saturday morning, rocket sirens sounded in Tel Aviv after a missile was launched from Yemen, with the IDF confirming it had been intercepted by Israel’s Air Force.

Under the terms of the deal, Israel are expected to release 737 prisoners and detainees as part of the first phase of a long-awaited truce which begins on Sunday.

“The government approves” the “release (of) 737 prisoners and detainees” currently in the custody of the prison service, the ministry said in a statement.

The deal is set to come into effect at 8.30am local time (6.30am GMT) on Sunday, the Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said.

Israel’s government voted in favour of the truce after the country’s security cabinet, chaired by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, agreed to the ceasefire and hostage deal earlier on Friday. The vote is believed to have been 24 in favour and eight against early on Saturday morning local time.

The ceasefire was announced on Wednesday but faced last-minute hurdles after Mr Netanyahu accused Hamas of “reneging” on parts of the deal.

It was not clear what caused the delay, but it was reported Hamas tried to add some of its members to the list of Palestinian prisoners that would be released under the exchange.

1 minute ago

Who is going to be released and what to expect

A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas is expected to come into effect at 8:30am local time on Sunday, seeing the release dozens of hostages held in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The long fought-for deal, divided into three phases of 42 days each, was approved by the Israeli cabinet with a majority of 24 ministers in favour and eight against in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Many hope it will bring an end to the devastating 15-month conflict, which has claimed the lives of over 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza and more than 1,000 in Israel.

Read the full article here:

Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal: Who is going to be released and what to expect

Hostages and Palestinian prisoners are expected to start being released from 4pm local time Sunday

Holly Evans18 January 2025 14:10
26 minutes ago

Yemen's Houthis say will deal with Israel in case of any violations Gaza ceasefire deal

Yemen’s Houthis said they will coordinate closely with the Palestinian resistance to deal with Israel in case of any violations to the Gaza ceasefire deal, the militant group’s military spokesperson said on Saturday.

Holly Evans18 January 2025 13:45
46 minutes ago

A year of war in Gaza: A timeline of key moments as ceasefire deal agreed

Just days before US president Joe Biden is set to leave office, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire deal after 15 months of war in Gaza.

The Israeli cabinet approved the deal in the early hours of Saturday morning local time, which the Qatari prime minister announced as a three-phase agreement, set to take effect on Sunday. It will include the release of hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The US, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly tried to secure a ceasefire ever since the conflict began on 7 October 2023, with both Israel and Hamas rejecting multiple draft proposals.

Read the full article:

A year of war in Gaza: A timeline of key moments as ceasefire deal agreed

Fifteen months after Israel vowed to wipe Hamas ‘off the face of the earth’ following the 7 October attack, a ceasefire has been reached

Holly Evans18 January 2025 13:25
1 hour ago

Israel to withdraw into buffer zone to allow Palestinians to return home

Also during the first phase, Israeli troops are to pull back into a buffer zone about a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide inside Gaza, along its borders with Israel.

That will allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including in Gaza City and northern Gaza. With most of Gaza’s population driven into massive, squalid tent camps, Palestinians are desperate to get back to their homes, even though many were destroyed or heavily damaged by Israel’s campaign.

The largely devastated territory should also see a surge in humanitarian aid. Trucks carrying aid lined up Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. On Saturday, two Egyptian government ministers arrived in the northern Sinai Peninsula to oversee the preparations for the delivery of aid and to receive the evacuation of wounded patients, the health ministry said.

Most of Gaza’s population have been driven into squalid refugee camps
Most of Gaza’s population have been driven into squalid refugee camps (AFP via Getty Images)
Holly Evans18 January 2025 13:05
1 hour ago

Family killed in Gaza strike in ‘humanitarian zone’, Palestinian media reports

Israeli attacks have continued to pound Gaza despite the ceasefire deal, with one overnight strike on a camp in the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” killing five family members, including women and children, Palestinian media has reported.

Al-Jazeera also reported that a Palestinian had been killed in the town of al-Fukhari, east of Khan Younis in the besieged enclave.

Holly Evans18 January 2025 12:48
2 hours ago

Watch: Pro-Palestine supporters march through London

Holly Evans18 January 2025 11:58
2 hours ago

The next 72 hours are critical – I worry Israel will kill us before the ceasefire begins

In Sheikh Radwan, in northern Gaza, we have been starving and waiting. The next few days leading up to a possible ceasefire feel more dangerous than ever for us Palestinians. Everyone is holding their breath, hoping to live long enough to see the good news realised. We have already seen Israel dropping bombs and killing 46 people since the ceasefire was announced.

For the past 15 months, hoping for a ceasefire has been one of the only things I can do. I have grown used to counting days since the start of this horror: counting the days since I was last able to get flour. I also count the days of our lives.

During the darkest times, when we realised that aid and food weren’t coming, my family and I tried to sustain ourselves with anything we could find. We tried bird food and rabbit food and even tried to grind up cat food. In the first days of this famine, I saw people going to Nabulsi Square, where aid trucks full of wheat flour would distribute quantities that were only enough for a small fraction of us. I would see people dying in attempts to get some flour for their families, but some did come away with flour. At first, I thought that I wouldn’t die for a bag of flour. Later, I realised I was dying of starvation anyway.

Read the full article here:

The next 72 hours are critical – I worry Israel will kill us before the ceasefire

These final days before the ceasefire are the most terrifying, writes Ammar Kaskeen from the north of Gaza. I worry that Israel will try to finish up the war by dropping more bombs than ever before

Holly Evans18 January 2025 11:48
2 hours ago

Hostage and prisoner exchange to begin at 2pm on Sunday

According to the ceasefire plan, approved by the Cabinet and signed by Israel’s national security adviser, the exchange will begin Sunday at 4pm local time (2pm GMT). During each exchange, prisoners will be released by Israel after the hostages have arrived safely.

The plan says that during phase one, some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners will be released, in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages, both alive and dead. Among the prisoners, 1,167 are residents in Gaza who were held by Israel but were not involved in Oct. 7. All women and children under 19 from Gaza held by Israel will be freed during this phase.

All Palestinian prisoners who were convicted of deadly attacks will be exiled, either to Gaza or abroad, and barred from returning to Israel or the West Bank. Some will be exiled for three years and others permanently, according to the plan.

Israeli hostages are set to be released under the terms of the ceasefire deal
Israeli hostages are set to be released under the terms of the ceasefire deal (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Holly Evans18 January 2025 11:30
2 hours ago

Lebanon's new president stresses urgency of Israeli withdrawal from south under truce deal

Lebanon’s new president Joseph Aoun stressed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday the urgency of an Israeli military withdrawal as stipulated by a ceasefire deal that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in November.

According to a statement by the Lebanese presidency on X, Aoun told Guterres during a meeting in Beirut that continued Israeli breaches were a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and the agreed ceasefire deal.

The ceasefire, which took effect on Nov. 27 and was brokered by the United States and France, requires Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, and for Hezbollah to remove all its fighters and weapons from the south.

Guterres said the U.N. would exert utmost efforts to secure an Israeli withdrawal within the set deadline under the ceasefire terms, according to the statement.

He had said on Friday the Israeli military’s continued occupation of territory in south Lebanon and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory were violations of a U.N. resolution upon which the ceasefire is based.

Holly Evans18 January 2025 11:14
3 hours ago

At least 46,899 Palestinians killed in Israel’s Gaza war, health ministry says

Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed at least 46,899 Palestinians and injured 110,725 since Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said in an update on Saturday.

23 Palestinians were killed and 83 were injured over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said.

Holly Evans18 January 2025 10:41

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