The high-level security cabinet voted Friday afternoon to approve the hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza, and recommended that the government adopt it, the Prime Minister’s Office said. The full cabinet then convened for a discussion and vote, with the meeting extending long into Shabbat.

The full cabinet was expected to vote by a large majority to approve the deal, which was signed overnight in Qatar and is set to take effect on Sunday.

The recommendation by the forum of top ministers was made “after examining all diplomatic, security and humanitarian” aspects of the agreement, with the understanding that the deal “supports the achievement of the war’s goals,” the PMO said.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the deal at the security cabinet. Security cabinet observers David Amsalem (Likud) and Orit Strock (Religious Zionism) also voted against the agreement but their votes didn’t count, and the vote passed with nine for and two against.

Before the security cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took part in a security assessment to discuss the deal’s implementation with the negotiating team, which returned overnight from Doha after signing the final version of the accord with Hamas.

A meeting of the full cabinet had been slated to begin at 3:30 p.m., but actually started more than two hours later. It had earlier been expected to take place only on Saturday evening, but was moved up after numerous ministers, including Haredi members of the cabinet, said Shabbat considerations should not put off a life-saving matter.

The deal, announced by mediators on Wednesday, is currently scheduled to take effect on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. Unconfirmed reports in Hebrew media said the release of the first three female hostages was expected at 4 p.m. that day. Israel was expected to get the identities of the first returnees from Hamas by 4 p.m. Saturday.

Thursday evening saw reports that holding the full cabinet meeting only on Saturday evening would cause a delay in the deal’s implementation from Sunday to Monday. However, Netanyahu’s office later said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday as planned regardless.

Following the government’s approval, the High Court of Justice is slated to hear any petitions against elements of the deal but is widely expected not to intervene.

The government’s hostages and missing persons coordination unit on Friday notified the families of the 33 Israeli hostages expected to be set free in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Those on the list, to be returned over 42 days, are so-called humanitarian cases: women, children, elderly individuals, and the infirm.

Israel has not been told how many of the 33 are alive, though it expects the majority are. Israel will receive a full status report on all those on the list seven days into the ceasefire. The order of release is not yet known. The identities of those set to return are expected to be provided 24 hours before each release.

Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who returned from Qatar along with Mossad chief David Barnea following the signing of the deal there overnight, reportedly urged ministers to approve the deal as soon as possible, warning that any delay risked endangering hostages’ lives.

In the course of the security cabinet meeting, according to unconfirmed Hebrew media reports, Netanyahu told ministers that Israel has “received “definitive guarantees” from both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, that “if the negotiations on........

© The Times of Israel