al jazeera

By Urooba Jamal and Umut Uras
    The Israeli military has pulled its troops back behind the line agreed under the Gaza deal, prompting the movement of displaced families from the southern parts of the enclave to the north, according to our team on the ground.
    Earlier, Israel’s government approved “phase one” of a ceasefire agreement, which will see captives exchanged and Israel withdraw from parts of Gaza, but details of how it fits into a wider plan to bring lasting peace remain unclear.
    Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’s negotiating team, said the group has received guarantees from the United States and mediators that an agreement on a first phase of the ceasefire agreement means the war in Gaza “has ended completely”.
    The Israeli government’s ratification of the peace plan, which was confirmed in the early hours of Friday morning, paves the way for fighting in Gaza to stop within 24 hours, while Hamas has been given a 72-hour timeline to free Israeli captives.
    Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 67,194 people and wounded 169,890 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 200 were taken captive.

Israel’s Smotrich credits himself for captive deal he voted against

    Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says his critics should thank him “for refusing partial deals that would have deprived” some of the captives.

    “We are now accepting all the abductees only because of this insistence of mine,” he said in a video statement on X, replying to criticism by former National Unity lawmaker and ex-Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot towards the minister for voting against the agreement on ceasefire and captive release.

    Eisenkot, in a post on X, said that the ministers who voted against the deal were showing “shameful leadership” by trying to abandon the captives who were “abducted on their watch” without mentioning Smotrich or his Religious Zionism party.

    Smotrich said: “If, God forbid, we had listened to you, there would have been no chance in the world that we would have reached this great achievement.”

    The far-right politician had announced on Thursday that he opposed the deal and would not vote in favour of it at the security cabinet, which later approved the agreement.

‘If the US wants the war to end, it will end’

    Mohamad Elmasry, of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says the fact that Trump appears to be personally invested in ending Israel’s war on Gaza is a positive sign that the conflict may indeed end.

    “What we’ve been saying for two years is that the United States holds all of the leverage. If they want the war to end, it will end,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.

    “If Trump is so personally invested and has already made a determination that this is the end of the war, and if he’s made it clear to Israel that this is the end of the war, then I think we’re going to get the end of the war,” he added.

    Since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, the US has provided its top ally with billions of dollars in military aid as well as unwavering diplomatic support. Both Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, had rebuffed calls to curb that assistance.

Gaza’s children hope for return to childhood during ceasefire: UNICEF

    UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram says children in Gaza are “excited” following the ceasefire, as they believe it means they will be able to return to their lives.

    “Children were jumping around, celebrating; a little girl hugged me and said, ‘Thank you’. I think that really is the sentiment. Take 13-year-old Maysara from Jabalia who we spoke to. He told us children like him were tired of war, they wanted to return ‘to live our childhood’,” Ingram told Al Jazeera from the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza.

    But Ingram said the scale-up of aid to the enclave during the ceasefire was “critical” to allow children to go back to school and receive proper nutrition.

    “While the ceasefire does stop the killing and injuring of children, hopefully … what we also need to see is that aid coming in,” she said.

    “So, yes, we are making preparations. We have more than 1,300 trucks prepositioned around the Gaza Strip, ready to come in with life-saving supplies for children, and as they enter, we will have more,” Ingram added.