Israel delayed a Cabinet vote on Thursday (January 16, 2025) on the long-awaited ceasefire deal that would pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages. Israeli airstrikes, meanwhile, killed at least 72 people in the war-ravaged territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed a last-minute dispute with Hamas for holding up the approval as rising tensions in Netanyahu’s government coalition raised concerns about the implementation of the deal just a day after U.S. President Joe Biden and key mediator Qatar announced it was complete.

That created a dual reality: War-weary Palestinians in Gaza, the relatives of hostages held in the enclave and world leaders all welcomed the result of months of painstaking diplomacy, even as Netanyahu postponed the Cabinet vote on the agreement that had been scheduled for Thursday until Friday, at the earliest.

Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the agreement in an attempt to gain further concessions — without specifying which parts.

“Hamas is backing out of the understandings and creating a last-minute crisis that prevents a settlement,” Netanyahu’s office said.

In a briefing Thursday, David Mencer, an Israeli government spokesman, said Hamas’ new demands dealt with the deployment of Israeli forces in the Philadelphi corridor, the narrow strip bordering Egypt that Israeli troops seized in May.

Hamas denied the claims, with Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, saying the militant group “is committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators.”

It wasn’t clear to what extent the holdup in the approval of the deal — originally scheduled to go into effect Sunday — also reflected jockeying to keep Netanyahu’s wobbly government together.

The ceasefire agreement has drawn fierce resistance from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, on whose support the Israeli prime minister depends to remain in power. On Thursday, Israel’s hardline national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, threatened to quit the government if Israel approves the ceasefire.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called on Israel and Hamas to implement a Gaza ceasefire plan “without any delay” in an exclusive interview Thursday with The Associated Press. Egypt has been a key mediator between the enemies for years and a leading player in ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

The deal announced Wednesday would see scores of hostages held in Gaza released and a pause in fighting with a view to eventually wind down a 15-month war that has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.

Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack into Israel that killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.

Israel responded with a devastating offensive that has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed.

The military campaign has leveled vast swaths of Gaza, and pushed about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are struggling with hunger and disease in squalid tent camps on the coast.

The Israeli prime minister faces great domestic pressure to bring home the hostages, whose families have pleaded with Netanyahu to prioritize the release of their loved ones over politics.

But Israeli divisions over the deal were on stark display Thursday, as Ben-Gvir, a key government coalition partner and Cabinet member, threatened to resign, saying the ceasefire was “reckless” and would “destroy all of Israel’s achievements.”

The departure of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party would reduce the number of the ruling coalition’s seats in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, from 68 to 62 — leaving Netanyahu’s government with just the slimmest of majorities. Ben-Gvir said his party would return to the coalition if Israel resumes its war.

Ben-Gvir’s resignation would not bring down the government or derail the ceasefire deal. But the move destabilizes the Israeli government at a delicate moment and could lead to the government’s collapse if Ben-Gvir is joined by other key Netanyahu allies.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, for instance, is vehemently opposed to the agreement and has demanded that Netanyahu promise to resume the war against Hamas after the first phase of the ceasefire as a condition of his party staying in the coalition.

Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight as people were celebrating the ceasefire deal. In previous conflicts, both sides have stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires as a way to project strength.

“We were expecting that the (Israeli) occupation would intensify the bombing, like they did every time there were reports of progress in truce talks,” said Mohammed Mahdi, who is sheltering in Gaza City.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes have killed at least 72 people since the ceasefire deal was announced. It said the toll from Thursday’s strikes only includes bodies brought to two hospitals in Gaza City and the actual toll is likely higher.

“Yesterday was a bloody day, and today is bloodier,” said Zaher al-Wahedi, a Health Ministry official.

The Israeli military said it had struck approximately 50 militant targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launch sites.

Anxiety spread across Gaza on Thursday with the news of last-minute quarreling between Hamas and Israeli officials.

“We ask our brothers in Hamas to communicate with mediators to end the war,” said Omar Jendiya, in Deir al-Balah. “Enough with the destruction and killing.”

Under the deal reached Wednesday, 33 of some 100 hostages who remain in Gaza 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, while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy joined the talks in the final weeks, and both the outgoing administration and Trump’s team are taking credit for the breakthrough.

Longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction.

Israel has come under heavy international criticism, including from its closest ally, the United States, over the civilian toll in Gaza. It also blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, accusing it of using schools, hospitals and residential areas for military purposes.

Hamas has come under overwhelming pressure from Israel’s invasion of Gaza’s largest cities and towns and seizure of the border between Gaza and Egypt. Its top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, who was believed to have helped mastermind the 2023 attack, have been killed.

But its fighters have regrouped in some of the hardest-hit areas after the withdrawal of Israeli forces, raising the prospect of a prolonged insurgency if the war continues.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday to thank them for helping to secure a deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza, his office said.

LIVE: Qatar PM confirms Israel-Hamas ceasefire, hostage deal

“The prime minister thanked President-elect Trump for his help in advancing the release of the hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said in a first acknowledgement of a deal, adding that the two agreed to meet “soon” in Washington. The statement said Netanyahu then spoke with Biden to thank him too.

Golan Heights has been occupied by Israel for almost 60 years. (File)

Washington:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for his country and the United States to stand together in a landmark speech Wednesday aimed at rallying support in a US Congress split over his military campaign in Gaza.

“For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together,” Netanyahu said, after arriving to applause and cheers from Republicans and a much more muted reception from Democrats.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Doha:

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday accused Israel’s prime minister of sabotaging efforts by mediators involved in ongoing talks aimed at a truce and hostage exchange in Gaza.

Qatar-based Haniyeh said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to “invent constant justifications for the continuation of aggression, expanding the circle of conflict, and sabotaging efforts made through various mediators and parties”.

Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators met a Hamas delegation in Cairo on Saturday in the latest bid to halt the devastating almost seven-month-old war that has triggered worldwide protests.

A senior Hamas source close to the negotiations told AFP there would be “a new round” of talks on Sunday.

Negotiators seeking to halt the devastating war have proposed an initial 40-day pause in the fighting and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Haniyeh said Hamas had approached the talks with “seriousness and positivity” but questioned “the meaning of an agreement if a ceasefire is not its first result”.

Earlier Netanyahu had rejected Hamas’s demand to end the war.

Israel was “not ready to accept a situation in which the Hamas battalions come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threaten the citizens of Israel”, he said.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for months.

The Qatar-based leader of Hamas’s political office said the United States had “provided cover for this occupation, should be the one to stop it instead of supplying it with weapons of destruction and extermination”.

Haniyeh added that Hamas “remains eager to reach a comprehensive and interconnected agreement in stages, ending the aggression, ensuring withdrawal, and achieving a serious prisoner exchange deal”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he would not send a delegation as planned to Washington after the United States did not veto a U.N. Security Council proposal calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Mr. Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office, said that Washington’s failure to veto the proposal was a “clear retreat” from its previous position, and would hurt war efforts against Hamas in Gaza as well as efforts to release over 130 hostages.

“In light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided the delegation would not leave,” his office said.

The high-level delegation was due to travel to Washington to discuss a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.