Israel’s cabinet was set to vote Friday on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, an official said, with mediator the United States “confident” the accord would take effect as planned.As ministers weighed whether to approve the fragile agreement, new Israeli strikes killed dozens of people, Gaza rescuers said Thursday, and Israel’s military reported hitting about 50 targets across the territory over the past day.At least two cabinet members have voiced opposition to the ceasefire, with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir saying Thursday that he and his party colleagues would quit the government — but not the ruling coalition — if it approved the “irresponsible” deal.The truce, announced by mediators Qatar and the United States on Wednesday, would begin on Sunday and involve the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which the terms of a permanent end to the war would be finalised.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas on Thursday of reneging “on parts of the agreement… to extort last-minute concessions”, and vowed to postpone the cabinet vote until the issues were addressed.But an Israeli official later told AFP the cabinet would meet Friday to decide on the deal.Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri said there was “no basis” for Israel’s accusations.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been involved in months of mediation efforts, said he believed the ceasefire would go ahead on schedule.”I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday,” he said.The foreign ministry of fellow mediator Egypt said in a statement the ceasefire must “start without delay”.Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory after the deal was announced, killing at least 80 people and wounding hundreds.Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their “freedom… into a tragedy”.The war was triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.During the attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.- Mixed feelings -The ceasefire agreement followed intensified efforts from mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States, after months of fruitless negotiations to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history.If finalised, it would pause hostilities one day before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.Envoys from both the Trump team and the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden were present at the latest negotiations, with a senior Biden official saying the unlikely pairing had been a decisive factor in reaching the deal.In Israel and Gaza, there were celebrations welcoming the truce deal, but also anguish.Saeed Alloush, who lives in north Gaza, said he and his loved ones were “waiting for the truce and were happy”, until overnight strikes killed many of his relatives.”It was the happiest night since October 7″ until “we received the news of the martyrdom of 40 people from the Alloush family”, he said.In Tel Aviv, pensioner Simon Patya said he felt “great joy” that some hostages would return alive, but also “great sorrow for those who are returning in bags, and that will be a very strong blow, morally”.In addition to Ben Gvir, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has also opposed the truce, calling it a “dangerous deal”.Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, announcing the agreement on Wednesday, said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released, including women, “children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return “to their residences”, he said.- Aid needed -Announcing the deal from the White House, Biden said the second phase of the agreement could bring a “permanent end to the war”.He added the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also underscored the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza.Cairo said it was ready to host an international conference on reconstruction in Gaza, where the United Nations has said it would take more than a decade to rebuild civilian infrastructure.The World Health Organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, said Thursday that at least $10 billion would probably be needed over the next five to seven years to rebuild Gaza’s devastated health system alone.The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to start later this month, welcomed the ceasefire deal.”What’s needed is rapid, unhindered and uninterrupted humanitarian access and supplies to respond to the tremendous suffering caused by this war,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.burs-ser/ami/smw/srm

The fates of a baby and his four-year-old brother, taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, have been on everyone’s mind in Israel since the announcement of a Gaza ceasefire.Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday falls on Saturday, is the youngest of the 251 people seized by militants during Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel more than 15 months ago.Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir, his brother Ariel and their mother Shiri were killed in an Israeli strike, but with the Israeli military yet to confirm their deaths, many are clinging to the hope they are still alive.”To imagine them coming back alive brings me immense joy,” Hila Shlomo, a musician, told AFP at “Hostages Square”, a central plaza in Israel’s main commercial city Tel Aviv that has become the focus of protests and campaigns on the captives’ behalf.”What happened to these children is a symbol, a symbol of man-made evil, but also of the victory of life if we manage to free them, whatever the cost,” said the 23-year-old, visibly moved.The boys and their mother are on the list of 33 hostages to be released during the first stage of the ceasefire deal, as is the boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, though that does not guarantee they are among the living.Hostages released during an earlier, short-lived truce said Yarden Bibas was kept separately from his family, and Hamas has not said he is dead. For several days now, countless messages of support accompanied by photos of Kfir Bibas have been circulating on social media, a sign that many are still holding out hope.Footage published by Hamas of Shiri Bibas tightly holding her two red-headed boys, taken from their house in kibbutz Nir Oz, became one of the lasting images of the tragedy that struck Israel that day.- ‘Heart-wrenching’ -Further along the square, two retirees, Osnat Nyska and Yafa Wolfensohn, also became emotional at the mention of the Bibas boys.The two friends were attending a weekly gathering calling for the liberation of the hostages.”I think of them, these two little redheads, and I get shivers,” said 70-year-old Nyska, whose grandchildren attended nursery school with the Bibas brothers.”They really are a symbol… the two youngest children kidnapped, and if they’re not alive anymore it will be heart-wrenching,” added Wolfensohn.At a football game in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Wednesday evening, players from Hapoel Beersheba held orange balls, a colour that has come to be associated with the redheaded Bibas children.During Saturday night’s regular protest, Eli Bibas, grandfather to Kfir and Ariel, was among the speakers addressing the crowd.”Next Saturday, our Kfir will live his second birthday in captivity. How is it possible that my grandson, who was kidnapped when he was eight-and-a-half months old, is going through his second birthday in hell?” he asked.”How is it that he still hasn’t celebrated a birthday with his father, his family, in his home in his country?”Relatives of the Bibas family declined to speak about the ceasefire deal when contacted by AFP, but did issue a statement Wednesday saying they were “aware of information suggesting that our family will be part of the first phase of the deal, and that Shiri and the children will be freed”.But, they added, we “won’t take anything for granted as long as our loved ones haven’t crossed the border”.Thirty-three Israeli hostages — among them women and children — will be released in the initial 42-day phase of the agreement, which could become a permanent ceasefire, according to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, whose country acted as a mediator during the months-long negotiations.”All the hostages are in our hearts,” said Nelly Ben Israel, a librarian at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. “But I think I’m not mistaken when I say we think first and foremost about the young Bibases.”