Israeli Security Cabinet OKs Gaza truce

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(Jan. 17, 2025 / JNS) — Israel’s Security Cabinet met in Jerusalem on Friday and recommended that the full Cabinet approve the Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The full Cabinet was set to convene for the final vote at 3:30 p.m.

The accord’s first stage is to see the phased release of 33 hostages — alive or dead — over a six-week period starting on Sunday, in return for the release of about 1,000 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons.

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The ceasefire is expected to go in effect at 12:15 p.m. on Sunday, with the first three hostages, women, to be freed around 4 p.m. Their names were slated to be revealed Saturday afternoon by Hamas, 24 hours before their release.

Ninety-four hostages abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led massacre are still being held in Gaza, at least one-third of them dead. Two mentally ill Israelis who entered the Strip on their own are also being held by the terrorists, as are the bodies of two slain IDF soldiers.

The second phase of the agreement would see the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli jails, and an Israeli army withdrawal from almost all of the Gaza Strip.

The 15-month long war was triggered by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw another 250 abducted to the Gaza Strip, in the single worst attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

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