AFP- Ahmed Gharabli
Israel and Hamas announced a deal on Wednesday allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed while offering besieged Gaza residents a four-day truce after weeks of all-out war.
In the first major diplomatic breakthrough in the war, Israel, Hamas, the United States and Qatar sketched in a series of statements a carefully sequenced agreement that has been weeks in the making.
Under the Qatar-brokered deal, Palestinian militants will release 50 women and children kidnapped during their October 7 raids, in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians.
A senior US official said three Americans, including a three-year-old, were among the 50 earmarked for release from Thursday.
Qatar's foreign ministry confirmed the deal, saying that "a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons" would be released in exchange for the hostages.
Hamas released a statement welcoming the "humanitarian truce" and said it would also see 150 Palestinians released from Israeli jails.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approved the accord Wednesday after a near-all-night meeting, in which he told reticent ministers this was a "difficult decision but it's a right decision."
The cabinet's sign-off was one of the last stumbling blocks after what one US official described as five "extremely excruciating" weeks of talks involving the US Central Intelligence Agency, Israel's overseas spy agency Mossad, Egyptian intelligence, and leaders in Doha, Cairo, Washington, Gaza and Israel.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly has approved a motion to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and close the Israeli Embassy in South Africa until they agree to a ceasefire and participate in UN-facilitated negotiations.
