Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded, on Saturday, January 18, that Hamas provide a list of names of hostages to be freed on Sunday before any prisoner swap takes place.
The statement came after Israel’s Cabinet has approved the Gaza ceasefire deal that would pause the fighting and release dozens of hostages held by militants, along with Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, earlier on Saturday. The prime minister’s office has said that once the deal is approved, the ceasefire could start on Sunday with the first hostages released. This would be just the second ceasefire achieved in 15 months of war.
“We will be unable to move forward with the framework until we receive the list of the hostages who will be released, as was agreed,” his office said. When asked by Agence France-Presse (AFP), his spokesman said he was referring to the names of hostages to be freed on Sunday. Netanyahu is expected to issue a statement at 6:10 pm GMT on Saturday, his office said.
Later on Saturday, Netanyahu said that Israel reserves the right to resume fighting in Gaza with US support, as he pledged to bring home all hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
“We reserve the right to resume the war if necessary, with American support,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement, a day before a ceasefire is set to take effect. “We are thinking of all our hostages … I promise you that we will achieve all our objectives and bring back all the hostages.
“With this agreement, we will bring back 33 of our brothers and sisters, the majority (of them) alive,” he said, adding that the 42-day first phase, which starts on Sunday, was a “temporary ceasefire.”
“If we are forced to resume the war, we will do so with force,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel had “changed the face of the Middle East” since the war began.
The ceasefire will take effect at 6:30 am GMT on Sunday morning, according to a statement by Qatar, which helped mediate the deal. “As coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8:30 am on Sunday, January 19, local time in Gaza,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on X. “We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources.”
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Under the deal, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The remaining hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second phase that will be negotiated during the first. The Hamas militant group has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.
As many as 95 Palestinian prisoners are set to be released during the first stage of the ceasefire, Israel’s Justice Ministry says. Both sides have hinted that an exchange of hostages for prisoners will happen only after 2:00 pm GMT.
737 Palestinian prisoners
Israel’s Justice Ministry has published a list of 737 Palestinian prisoners who are to be released under the ceasefire deal pausing the war with Hamas militants in Gaza. The list was published early on Saturday, just hours after Israel’s full Cabinet approved the ceasefire deal, under which militants in Gaza will release dozens of hostages in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
In a statement on its website, the justice ministry said “the government approves” the “release (of) 737 prisoners and detainees” currently in the custody of the prison service.
The Justice Ministry said the Palestinian prisoners would be released no earlier than 4 pm local time on Sunday, the day the exchange is set to begin. The list includes members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups, some of whom are serving lifetime sentences and are convicted of serious offenses such as murder.
The list did not appear to include Marwan Barghouti, the 64-year-old Palestinian who is the highest-profile prisoner held by Israel and seen by many Palestinians as a prime candidate to become their president in the future. He was a leader in the West Bank during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.
Hamas has demanded that Israel release him as part of any ceasefire agreement, a possibility Israeli officials have ruled out. UN says Israeli soldiers’ actions in buffer zone between Israel and Syria violate a 1974 agreement
Sirens sound in Jerusalem
Explosions were heard over Jerusalem after sirens blared across the city and central Israel on Saturday morning, AFP journalists reported, while the Israeli military said a projectile had been launched from Yemen.
Sirens and explosions were heard over Jerusalem at around 08:20 GMT on Saturday, shortly after sirens sounded across central Israel in response to the projectile launched from Yemen, the military said in a statement. Minutes later, the military said it had intercepted the projectile launched from Yemen.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly launched missile and drone attacks on Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023. On Friday, the Houthis warned that they would keep up their attacks if Israel did not respect the terms of its ceasefire with Hamas.
The Huthi rebels, part of Iran’s “axis of resistance,” have also been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea throughout the war in Gaza, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.
Avoiding ‘public expressions of joy’
Israel’s Prison Services said it will transport the prisoners instead of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which handled transportation during the first ceasefire, to avoid “public expressions of joy.” The prisoners have been accused of crimes like incitement, vandalism, supporting terror, terror activities, attempted murder or throwing stones or Molotov cocktails.
The largely devastated Gaza should see a surge in humanitarian aid. Trucks carrying aid lined up Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. An Egyptian official said an Israeli delegation from the military and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency arrived Friday in Cairo to discuss the reopening of the crossing. An Israeli official confirmed a delegation was going to Cairo. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.
Israeli forces will also pull back from many areas in Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be able to return to what’s left of their homes. Israel’s military said that as its forces gradually withdraw from specific locations and routes in Gaza, residents will not be allowed to return to areas where troops are present or near the Israel-Gaza border and any threat to Israeli forces “will be met with a forceful response.”
Fighting continued into Friday, and Gaza’s Health Ministry said 88 bodies had arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours. In previous conflicts, both sides stepped up military operations in the final hours before ceasefires as a way to project strength. The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second – and much more difficult – phase that will be negotiated during the first.
Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory. Longer-term questions about postwar Gaza remain, including who will rule the territory or oversee the daunting task of reconstruction.
The conflict has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests . It also highlighted political tensions inside Israel, drawing fierce resistance from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners.
