A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will go into effect after the Israeli government ratifies the deal on Thursday evening, Reuters cited an official from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office as saying.
After the government approves the ceasefire, a 24-hour period will commence during which the decision will be able to be appealed to the High Court of Justice. Once that period ends, then Hamas will have 72 hours to fulfill its end of the agreement and release all the hostages, both living and deceased.
Consequently, Hamas may finish releasing the hostages on Monday, rather than Sunday. Originally, the ceasefire was set to begin at 12:00 p.m.
This is based on an informal agreement between both parties without a signed document.
This comes after US President Donald Trump announced early on Thursday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The agreement was announced after intensive talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, where US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner pushed the two parties to an agreement, along with Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
The plan was signed at noon in Egypt, and will come into effect after the Israeli government ratifies it in a vote set for 6 p.m. on Thursday.
Twenty living hostages are expected to be released within 72 hours of the deal entering effect. Additionally, Arab reports indicated that Hamas had begun collecting the remains of deceased hostages to return to Israel.
In the immediate wake of the announcement of the deal, the IDF began preparing to shift its deployment lines in the Palestinian enclave after The Jerusalem Post previously reported Israel had reached a full agreement on the maps detailing the military's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Joint task force will recover missing hostage remains
A joint Israeli-US-Qatari-Egyptian task force will be established to locate the bodies of deceased hostages whose location is unknown.
A source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post that the task force will provide heavy equipment for tasks such as digging or demolishing buildings to reach the bodies of the deceased.
The goal of the task force is to return as many remains of abducted individuals as possible to Israel, along with the living hostages, within 72 hours.