After over seven hours of discussions, the Israeli government on Friday night approved a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group. Twenty-four ministers voted in favor of the deal, and eight opposed. The deal will take effect on Sunday. In the first stage of the deal, 33 living or dead "humanitarian" hostages are expected to be released. Some of them - the civilian women and the two Bibas children - were slated to be released in the November 2023 prisoner swap deal. However, Hamas refused to release them, and Israel resumed fighting. On Sunday, Hamas is expected to release three female hostages, in exchange for whom Israel will release 95 convicted terrorists. Related articles: Report: Hamas claims it will accept Egyptian ceasefire proposal Trump Admin. has set date for full ceasefire in Ukraine Netanyahu considering next steps after surprise attack in Gaza I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible The ministers who opposed the deal were Bezalel Smotrich, Orit Strock, and Ofir Sofer of the Religious Zionist party; Itamar Ben Gvir, Amichai Eliyahu, and Itshak Waserlauf of Otzma Yehudit and Amichai Chikli and David Amsalem from the Likud. Shlomo Karhi, also of the Likud, did not vote. Attending the government meeting were all of the relevant parties: Mossad chief David Barnea, ISA chief Ronen Bar, Major General (res.) Nitzan Alon, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, and Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Gal Hirsch. The first stage of the deal will last 42 days, and will see the release of nearly 2,000 terrorists, including those serving multiple life sentences for some of the deadliest terror attacks in Israel's history.
