Israel-Hamas war live updates: Israeli government and Hamas agree hostage deal; Al-Shifa hospital sees more evacuations
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz (not pictured) in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv , Israel , 28 October 2023.
The Israeli government voted Tuesday night to accept a deal that would release some hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
The vote came just after 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning in Israel following more than six hours of discussion between Israeli cabinet members.
In a statement, the Israeli government said it approved "the first stage" of hostage release, which will free 50 of the roughly 240 hostages that Hamas currently holds. It said that the first tranche of hostages would be women and children, who will be released over the course of four days. During that four-day time period, Israel agreed to halt its bombardments to ensure their safe passage.
The statement also said that the war will continue.
"The Government of Israel, the IDF and the security services will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza," the Israeli government said.
The Israeli government noted that as part of the deal, it will agree to extend the temporary cease-fire one additional day for every additional ten hostages that Hamas releases.
A statement from Hamas said that in exchange for the 50 freed hostages, Israel will release 150 Palestinian women and children prisoners.A senior Israeli official told NBC earlier on Tuesday that the Palestinian prisoners did not directly kill Israelis themselves but rather played supporting roles in the crimes. Israel did not address this part of the deal in its statement.
Per Israeli policy, families of the victims of the Palestinian prisoners would have 24 hours to appeal their release to the Israeli Supreme Court. That means that no deal signed tonight will be able to take effect and is therefore not final until at least that 24-hour window is over.
— Rebecca Picciotto
