Israel Pledges to Allow Rebuilding of Gaza Strip as Part of Cease-fire Deal - Israel News - Haaretz.com
Israel has pledged to allow the rebuilding of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, as part of the cease-fire and hostage release deal with Hamas approved by the Israeli cabinet on Saturday.
Israel and Hamas agreed to return residents of northern Gaza to their homes, but since most buildings there are in ruins and uninhabitable, it was decided during the negotiations to begin rehabilitating Gaza by first setting up caravan cities financed by the international community.
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As part of the agreement, Israel committed to significantly increase the scope of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, allowing in 600 trucks carrying food a day. Products allowed in will be those previously approved for entry before the war began.
Furthermore, it was decided to expand topics defined as humanitarian and to allow the rebuilding of vital infrastructure in Gaza. This will include major roads, schools, hospitals and water, sewage and power infrastructure.
In order to achieve this, Israel has committed to allowing Egyptian-owned construction companies to enter the Gaza Strip, along with heavy equipment, building materials, iron and other material.
On Saturday morning, the spokesman for Qatar's foreign ministry, Majed al-Ansari, wrote on X that the cease-fire would commence at 8:30 A.M. on Sunday morning. Hamas committed to sending the names of the first female hostages to be released by late Saturday.
On Friday night, the government ratified the agreement after a seven-hour-long meeting. The resolution passed, with 24 ministers voting in favor and eight voting against.
The latter included Itamar Ben-Gvir, Yitzhak Wasserlauf and Amichai Eliyahu from Otzma Yehudit; Bezalel Smotrich, Ofir Sofer and Orit Strock from Religious Zionism; Amichai Chikli and David Amsalem from Likud.
A drone view of demonstrations supporting a hostage deal in Tel Aviv on Saturday.Credit: Ilan Rosenberg/Reuters
The cabinet secretariat has not yet publicly disclosed any appendices to this resolution that relate to the agreement's implementation, material that includes further information on the methods in which the deal will be implemented.
There are gaps between the public version of the government's decision and the agreement between Israel and Hamas, such as with regard to the army's withdrawal from key points in the Gaza Strip.
After the ratification, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to act immediately and urgently to ensure that the deal is fulfilled in all its parts, without waiting for 16 days before starting further negotiations [over the return of hostages in later stages]."
An Israeli holds a doll depicting Benjamin Netanyahu during demonstrations supporting a hostage deal in Tel Aviv on Saturday.Credit: Oded Balilty/AP
According to the deal, 33 hostages will be released in the first stage over the span of seven weeks, with the living hostages released first.
On the first day, three will be released, with four more on the seventh day. At this point, Hamas will have to announce which of the hostages included in the first group are alive and which are dead.
Subsequently, 12 hostages will be released in four steps, three at a time, on days 14, 21, 28 and 35.
On the last week, the remaining 14 will be set free. Hamas is expected to release the names of those released at each stage only on the day of their release. However, the prime minister's office intends to release the names to the public only after hostages are in the hands of the IDF, with their families updated.