Gaza: Israeli hardline minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Sunday resigned from the Benjamin Netanyahu government over the ceasefire agreement. The party of Israel’s hard-line National Security Minister stated that its Cabinet ministers submitted their resignations from the government on Sunday in opposition to the Gaza ceasefire deal, reported the Hindustan Times.
However, the departure of the Jewish Power party from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will not bring down the coalition or affect the ceasefire deal. However, such a move will definitely destabilize the coalition.
Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party has dubbed the ceasefire pact as a “capitulation to Hamas” and denounced what it called the “release of hundreds of murderers” and the “renouncing of the (Israeli military’s) achievements in the war” in Gaza.
An agreement between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire and hostage release went into effect on Sunday morning, a long-awaited step to end the devastating 15-month war in the Gaza Strip, reported the New York Times.
This comes after a delay of just over two hours as Hamas had reportedly not sent the name of the hostages to be released. But later in the day, Israel received the names of three hostages expected to be released on the day, according to two Israeli officials speaking on the condition of anonymity, according to NY Times.
Earlier, Israel had said the cease-fire would not come into effect until it had received the list. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday had stated that he would not move forward with the Gaza ceasefire agreement unless Iran-backed Hamas shares the list of 33 hostages who will be released from Palestine.
“We will not move forward with the agreement until we receive the list of hostages who will be released, as agreed. Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement. The sole responsibility lies with Hamas,” Netanyahu wrote on X.
Hamas, a terror group, on the other hand had blamed the delay on a ‘technical’ issue.
The Israeli military had continued to carry out airstrikes in northern and central Gaza, killing at least eight Palestinians, the Palestinian civil emergency service claimed.
Later, the Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed the ceasefire would begin at 11.15am local time. Gazans were seen celebrating and cheering at 8.30am local time in the central city of Deir el-Balah.
