Israel has delayed the Gaza ceasefire agreement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a vote to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal until Thursday, accusing Hamas of seeking last-minute changes to the deal.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was tying up a “loose end” and was confident the ceasefire would start on Sunday as planned.

Although Israeli negotiators agreed to the deal after a month of talks, it cannot be implemented until the security cabinet and the government approve it.

Hamas said it was committed to the deal, but the BBC understands it was trying to add some of its members to the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released under the deal.

After that came the delay Israeli strikes on Gaza follow Wednesday’s announcement a deal that killed more than 80 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Hours before Thursday morning’s meeting, Netanyahu accused Hamas of trying to “squeeze out last-minute concessions.”

The cabinet will not meet until Hamas accepts “all elements of the agreement,” a statement from his office read.

Blinken said such a delay was expected in such a “challenging” situation.

“It is not surprising that in a process and negotiation that has been so difficult and serious, to get a free end,” he said in a press conference in Washington.

“We are tying up that loose end as we speak.”

He said the US was “confident” the deal would go into effect on Sunday as planned, after which the ceasefire would last.

Israeli media reported that the cabinet is expected to meet on Friday to approve the deal and that the alleged problem has been resolved, although it has not been officially confirmed.

A majority of Israeli ministers are expected to back the deal, but late Thursday Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said his right-wing party would quit Netanyahu’s government if it was accepted.

“The agreement that is being formed is an irresponsible agreement,” Ben-Gvir told a press conference, adding that it would “erase the gains of the war.”

However, he said his Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party would not seek to oust the government if the deal was ratified.

He has called for the resignation of the leader of the other far-right party in the government, Bezalel Smotrich, the Minister of Finance of the Religious Zionist Party.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC that the group was committed to the deal announced by mediators.

Khalil al-Hayya, the head of the Hamas delegation, officially informed Qatar and Egypt that he had accepted all the terms of the deal, the official told the BBC.

But the BBC’s Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf understands that Hamas was trying to add the names of one or two symbolic members to the list of prisoners to be released under the deal.

In the first six-week phase of the deal, 33 hostages – including women, children and the elderly – would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Israeli troops would also withdraw to the east, away from the densely populated areas of Gaza.

Displaced Palestinians would be allowed to begin returning to their homes and hundreds of aid trucks would be allowed to enter the territory every day.

Negotiations for the second phase – which would require the release of the remaining hostages, the withdrawal of all Israeli troops and the return of “lasting calm” – will begin on the 16th.

The third and final stage would be to return the bodies of the remaining hostages and rebuild Gaza, something that could take years.

Israeli airstrikes continued after the deal was announced on Wednesday. At least 12 people were killed in Gaza City, where a doctor told BBC staff to “take a minute’s rest” during the “bloody night”.

Since the agreement was announced, attacks have been carried out on 50 targets in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency announced in a statement.

Qatar’s prime minister – who mediated the negotiations – called for “calm” from both sides before the start of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left around 1,200 people dead and 251 hostages.

Since then, more than 46,788 people have died in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have also been displaced, there is widespread destruction and severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter as aid agencies struggle to get aid to those in need.

Israel says 94 of the hostages are still being held by Hamas, of whom 34 are presumed dead. There are four Israelis kidnapped before the war, two of them dead.