Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
Meanwhile, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani has said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released by militants in Gaza.
Sheikh Mohammed told Sky News the framework signed this week was the same as one agreed on December 23, adding it amounted to “13 months of a waste of negotiating details.”
The truce is to take effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term as US president.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has completed preparations “to assume full responsibility in Gaza” after the war.
Israel has expressed no definitive stance on post-war governance beyond rejecting any role for either Hamas or the PA, while Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Gaza should be under PA control.
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.
The approval came despite eight ministers voting against it, including far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Ahead of the truce, displaced Gazans prepared to return home.
“I will go to kiss my land,” said Nasr al-Gharabli, who fled his home in Gaza City for a camp further south. “If I die on my land, it would be better than being here as a displaced person.”
Jerusalem residents said the deal had been a long time coming.
“Hopefully a maximum amount of hostages will be coming back”, said Beeri Yemeni, a university student. “Maybe this is the beginning of (the) end of suffering for both sides, hopefully,” he said, adding that “the war needed to end like a long long time ago.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Of the 251 people taken hostage, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,899 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
