Gaza ceasefire: Israel says Hamas blocking deal

Israel agreed to a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, with the Security Cabinet due to meet on Friday to approve it, several Israeli media outlets reported early on Friday.

"The [full Cabinet] will later convene to approve the deal," a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said without specifying exactly when the entire Cabinet would vote on the deal.

The statement added that relatives of the hostages had been informed and preparations were underway to receive the released hostages upon their return.

Israel's extreme-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has threatened to resign from his Cabinet position should the Israeli government approve the ceasefire deal negotiated with Hamas.

"The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal," he said in a televised statement, saying the release of hundreds of Palestinian militants and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from strategic areas of the Gaza Strip would "erase the achievements of the war" while leaving Hamas undefeated.

He called the deal "irresponsible" and called on humanitarian aid and the supply of water and electricity to the Gaza Strip to be stopped completely until all Israeli hostages were released.

Israel's security cabinet was expected to vote on the deal on Thursday, but the session has been postponed due to alleged internal disagreements, according to Israeli media.

In addition to Ben-Gvir, the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, is also reportedly opposed to the deal.

At least $10 billion will be needed to rebuild Gaza's health system over the next five to seven years, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated on Thursday.

"The needs are massive," the UN health agency's representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, said.

With a ceasefire on the horizon, Peeperkorn said his team's initial estimate of the cost to rebuild the health sector was "even more than $3 billion for the first 1.5 years and then actually $10 billion for the [next] five to seven years."

"In Gaza, we all know the destruction is so massive. I have never seen that anywhere else in my life," he said. 

Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "less than half of Gaza hospitals are functional."

The Israeli Cabinet is set to meet on Friday to vote on a hostage release and ceasefire deal in Gaza, according to an Israeli official, as reported on by the AFP news agency.

The vote comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his Cabinet had postponed its approval of the ceasefire deal.

The Netanyahu administration accused Hamas of backtracking on certain terms.

Hamas, though, has denied the accusation.

The ceasefire agreement and the fragility surrounding it has brought mixed emotions to the streets among Israelis and Palestinians.

Some Israelis said the situation was simply nerve-racking. Walking along Ben Yehuda Street in West Jerusalem, Zimratiya Hazani told DW correspondent Tania Krämer that it might be best to "avoid the news for a few days" while the situation remains uncertain.

"I think everyone walking around has mixed feelings about it," she said. "I feel there is not one answer." She said that she believed Hamas would continue to be a threat. "They might just do October 7 again, no one can guarantee otherwise. But, of course, we want the hostages back, all of them, as soon as possible."

Hazani was not alone in her assessment. "I think the agreement is a good agreement, if we get all the hostages back and the bodies that were held there," Uriel Ben Avraham said. "But I think Hamas will rearm and regroup."

In Gaza, many Palestinians were celebrating the news that a ceasefire could come into effect on Sunday. Others remained cautious as Israeli bombardment continued across Gaza.

Yasmine Al-Naezi was on the streets of Deir al Balah when news of the deal broke. She and her family were displaced from northern Gaza during the war. 

"Thank God we are safe, and thank God we will return to our home, my children and I," the 27-year-old told DW. "I hope the truce lasts forever and ends peacefully so we can return to the north."

The European Union (EU) says €120 million ($123.5 million) in new humanitarian aid is earmarked for Gaza after Wednesday’s announcement of a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

"The ceasefire and hostage release agreement offers hope the region desperately needed. But the humanitarian situation remains grim in Gaza," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on social media platform X.

"Europe will channel €120 million of aid in 2025, alongside tons of in-kind aid, to keep supporting Palestinians," von der Leyen added.

"The EU will work closely with UN agencies and other humanitarian partner organizations to ensure swift delivery of the assistance," the European Commission said in a press release.

The package will include food, healthcare and shelter assistance and support to allow access to clean water.

The latest announcement brings the total of humanitarian aid pledged by the commission to Gaza since 2023 to a total of over €450 million.

Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, has told DW that the ceasefire deal is "a victory" for the hostages and Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

However, Schindler said the Hamas command and control structure, and its tunnel network, had been severely degraded. 

Every month or week Hamas leaders wait for a ceasefire will only make them weaker, he said.

"For Hamas, this deal really is the recognition that they have nothing more to gain by prolonging this conflict," he said.

However, he said that Hamas was in a position to rebuild itself. 

"Outside Gaza and outside the Palestinian territories, the Hamas infrastructure is pretty much untouched," Schindler said, mentioning the organization's leadership and money.

He added that Hamas will get some credit for getting Palestinian prisoners back, so it was not in a bad position to rebuild.

"Hamas as an organization, as an ideology still exists. What is gone is its power infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. It has the ability to rebuild this if the circumstances allow it to do so," Schindler said.

 

Health officials in Gaza say at least 72 people have been killed since the potential ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday.

Officials added that this includes only the number of people brought to Gaza's few remaining hospitals and that the real number may be much higher.

"Yesterday was a bloody day, and today is bloodier," said Zaher al- Wahedi, head of the health ministry's registration department.

Gaza's health ministry is run by Hamas, but the United Nations considers their death toll reporting to be accurate.

Russia became the latest international power to comment on the ceasefire, saying it hopes the deal will stabilize the region.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ceasefire was an "important practical step toward the long-term stabilization in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation" and could be the basis for "the establishment of a process of comprehensive political settlement of the Palestinian problem."

However, the Kremlin later expressed that the optimism was a cautious one amid statements from Israel that it wasn't ready to approve the deal over what it called Hamas' "reneging" on key points.

"Any settlement that leads to a ceasefire, an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza and increases Israel's security can only be welcomed," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"But let's wait for the finalization of the process," he said.

Germany's Lufthansa Group has announced that it will resume flights to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport on February 1.

The airline had suspended flights because of the ongoing conflict in Gaza. 

Lufthansa is Europe's biggest aviation group by revenue, and its 15 weekly flights from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv are a key part of commercial travel between the EU and Israel.

Lufthansa said flights to Iran and Lebanon would remain suspended until at least February 14.

In response to accusations that Hamas is stalling the deal, senior official Izzat al-Rishq said the group "is committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators."

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had said Hamas was trying to hold up the deal in order to secure last-minute concessions.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas of backtracking on details of the ceasefire agreement and said his Cabinet would not sign off on the deal yet.

According to the prime minister's office, the "last-minute crisis" was holding up the ceasefire's approval.

"Hamas reneges on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last minute concessions," read a statement from Netanyahu. "The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement."

Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen wrote on social media site X that the ceasefire is a welcome end to over a year of violence.

"After 15 months of despair and destruction, the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement to release hostages brings hope and relief that the suffering on all sides can now come to an end," he wrote.

Van der Bellen also mentioned the Israeli-Austrian Tal Shoham, one of the Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

The Chinese government has said the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza was a welcome development.

Beijing promised to make "unremitting efforts to promote peace and stability in the Middle East."

"We also sincerely hope that relevant parties will take the ceasefire in Gaza as an opportunity to promote the easing of regional tensions," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press briefing.

China would "continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza and make positive efforts to resume postwar reconstruction," Guo said.

In a statement, Iran's Revolutionary Guards called the ceasefire a "clear victory and great victory for Palestine" and a "bigger defeat" for Israel.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also welcomed the news, then called for "action to punish the criminal regime and heal the wounds of the Palestinian nation."

Today, the world realised that the patience of the people of Gaza and the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance forced the Zionist regime to retreat," a post on his account on X said, adding that Israel was "defeated".

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the news as well, writing on X: "Today, the world realized that the patience of the people of Gaza and the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance," adding that Israel had been "defeated."

As the conflict spiraled outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2024, Iran and Israel exchanged airstrikes. At the end of July, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran in an attack largely believed to have been carried out by Israel.