Gaza ceasefire and hostage releases bring hope as Netanyahu warns of potential resume of war

Less than six hours remain before the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas takes effect. Benjamin Netanyahu has cautioned that Israel may persist in fighting in Gaza if needed.

During this time, families of hostages in Gaza are anxious for updates on their loved ones, as Palestinians are getting ready to welcome detainees.

The ceasefire will go into effect Sunday at 8:30am local time. 

In a national address 12 hours before the ceasefire was to start, Netanyahu said the country was treating the ceasefire as temporary. 

Furthermore, Netanyahu stated that President-elect Donald Trump is backing him. Trump conveyed to NBC News that he advised the prime minister to ‘continue with necessary actions’.

Netanyahu also asserted that he negotiated the best deal possible, even as Israel’s far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he and most of his party would resign from the government in opposition to it. 

Netanyahu earlier warned that a ceasefire wouldn’t go forward unless Israel received the names of hostages to be released, as agreed. 

Israel had expected to receive the names from mediator Qatar. 

There was no immediate response from Qatar or Hamas. 

The overnight approval of the ceasefire deal by Israel’s Cabinet, in a rare meeting during the Jewish Sabbath, set off a flurry of activity and a fresh wave of emotions as relatives wondered whether hostages would be returned alive or dead. 

Families and thousands of others rallied once more Saturday night in Tel Aviv.

‘Please keep going and saving lives,’ said Anat Angrest, whose son Matan Angrest is still held in Gaza.

The pause in 15 months of war is a step toward ending the deadliest, most destructive fighting ever between Israel and the Hamas militant group. 

The deal was achieved under joint pressure from Trump and the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden ahead of Monday’s inauguration.

The first phase of the ceasefire will last 42 days, and negotiations on the far more difficult second phase are meant to begin just over two weeks in. 

After those six weeks, Israel’s security Cabinet will decide how to proceed.

Israeli airstrikes continued Saturday, and Gaza’s Health Ministry said 23 bodies had been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.

In the ceasefire’s first phase, Israeli troops are to pull back into a buffer zone about a kilometer wide inside Gaza along its borders with Israel. 

With most of Gaza’s population in massive, squalid tent camps, Palestinians are desperate to get back to their homes, even though many were destroyed or heavily damaged.

In a post on X, Qatar’s foreign minister advised Palestinians and others to exercise caution when the ceasefire goes into effect and wait for directions from officials.

Israel’s military later said Palestinians will not be able to cross the Netzarim corridor that runs across central Gaza for the first seven days of the ceasefire, and it warned Palestinians not to approach Israeli forces.

It comes as thousands of Israelis demonstrated across the country on Saturday night, urging the government to commit fully to the hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas. 

Others gathered to denounce the deal penned with the terror group, expressing their concerns regarding Israel’s security.

Protesters in Jerusalem have demanded a comprehensive agreement that would free all hostages at once rather than in stages. 

The deal comes one year and three months into a war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which saw 251 Israelis taken hostage by Hamas and a further 1,200 killed. 

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed more than 46,707 people, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.