Children cheer in Nuserat, in the central Gaza Strip, shortly before a ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas is to be implemented on January 19, 2025. Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images hide title
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas has begun.
The Israeli government announced that the ceasefire with Hamas would come into effect at 11:15 local time (4:15 a.m. ET) - approximately three hours later than the scheduled cessation of hostilities.
The ceasefire was due to come into effect at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, but before that, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel did not believe in the terms of the deal until Hamas handed over a list of hostages. Valid and enforceable. Released today. Under the deal, Hamas was supposed to hand them over on Saturday.
Hamas's military wing, the Qassim Brigades, released a statement on Telegram after an initial deadline, confirming that the group would release three Israeli women on Sunday, among the nearly 100 people believed to still be held by Hamas. part of the hostage.
The Israeli government confirmed it had received the list of hostages and had notified their families.
Throughout the morning, surveillance drones flew over Gaza and the Israeli military reported attacks in the area. NPR confirmed that a Jeep belonging to Qasim's brigade was hit.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the civil defense of Hamas-controlled Gaza, said Israeli attacks on Sunday morning had killed 19 people across the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military also said it conducted a special operation with the country's domestic intelligence services that helped recover the body of a foot soldier named Oron Shaul. He was killed in 2014 during clashes with Hamas. The organization still holds 97 abductees in Gaza. Most of them were seized on October 7, 2023, but others were held hostage over the past decade, and a significant number of them no longer exist.
In Jerusalem, the far-right Ozma Yehudit party issued a statement saying its leader and former national security minister Itamar Bengvir was making good on his threat to leave Netanyahu's ruling coalition and would lead Leaving with the party ministers. The statement called the ceasefire a "victory for terrorism."