The Israeli government has endorsed U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on the morning of October 10. According to the statement, the agreement with Hamas calls for the release of all Israeli hostages, "both living and dead."

The ceasefire will take effect within 24 hours after the deal is approved by the Israeli government, said a Cabinet spokesman quoted by Reuters. Hamas will then have 72 hours to release the hostages, the spokesman added. Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al-Haya said he had received guarantees from the U.S. and other mediators to end the war.

Israel is set to release some 250 Palestinians serving life sentences and another 1,700 detained Gazans in exchange for the remaining 48 hostages taken in a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Twenty Israeli hostages are believed to still be alive, 26 are presumed dead and the fate of two is unknown, Reuters writes. Hamas has signaled that retrieving the bodies of the dead may take longer than releasing the living, the agency added.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 attack in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Since then, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 67,000 people, including more than 20,000 children, according to authorities in the Hamas-controlled territory. The UN considers these figures reliable, although Israel disputes them, the BBC notes.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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