Representatives from Israel, Hamas, the U.S., and Qatar officially signed the hostage deal in Doha after a roughly 24-hour delay. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was updated by the negotiation team that an agreement had been reached on the hostage release deal Thursday overnight.
The Security Cabinet is scheduled to convene at 10:15 a.m. to approve the deal. According to the Prime Minister's Office, the government will also meet "at a later time," though no specific time has been mentioned, nor is it clear if this meeting will take place on Friday.
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Security Cabinet will convene after hostage deal signed in Qatar
(Photo: Alex Brandon/AP ,Meir Turgeman, Yair Sagi, Susan Walsh/AP)
"The Prime Minister expressed his appreciation to the negotiation team and everyone who assisted," the statement read. "The hostages’ families were updated on the agreement by the Prime Minister’s Office’s Hostage Directorate," Netanyahu instructed the Hostage Directorate to coordinate preparations for the hostages’ return.
Amid pressure from his coalition partners urging a resumption of hostilities once the first phase of the deal is complete — during which 33 hostages are expected to be released —Netanyahu said, "The State of Israel is committed to achieving all the war’s objectives, including the return of all our hostages, both the living and the fallen." Members of the negotiation team returned to Israel overnight.
If the Security Cabinet and government convene to approve the deal on Friday, during which the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released will be presented as well, three hostages may still be released by Sunday.
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According to several government officials, the delay stems from the expectation that the cabinet meeting will be very lengthy, prompting the decision to postpone it until the morning and to schedule the government meeting for Saturday night.
However, in the previous agreement, the deal was approved overnight following a short cabinet discussion and a subsequent lengthy government debate. The only plausible explanation for the delay until Saturday night is opposition from religious and ultra-Orthodox ministers to holding the meeting on the Sabbath.
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The final list of Palestinian prisoners to be released will only be published after the deal's approval, allowing additional time for petitions to the High Court of Justice against the release of terrorists.
Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia reported that the deal includes the release of "260 prisoners serving life sentences, 400 serving heavy sentences and 1,000 Gazans arrested after October 7."