Israeli strikes kill 7 in Gaza after ceasefire deal reached

Gaza's civil defence agency said Thursday that at least seven people had been killed in fresh Israeli strikes in the Palestinian territory, a day after Qatar and the United States announced a ceasefire deal would come into effect Sunday.

Israeli media reported that the cabinet was set to vote on the ceasefire agreement Thursday morning, and that the final details were still being discussed. Thursday’s strikes happened hours before Israel's cabinet was set to vote on the deal with Hamas.

"Our crew retrieved 5 dead and more than 10 injured from under the rubble of a house... that was bombed by the Israeli army in the Al-Rimal area west of Gaza City," the agency said in a statement.

It added it had retrieved the bodies of two more people killed in a strike at "the Al-Sha'biya intersection in the center of Gaza City".

The deal

Earlier, after mediators US and Qatar said a ceasefire deal had been reached, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the "final details" were being worked on.

Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to thank them for their help securing the agreement, his office said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said the deal was the "right move" to bring back hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

That attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel's ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes after the agreement was announced.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani told a press conference Wednesday that the "two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal", adding that the ceasefire between them would take effect on Sunday.

"We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement," he said.

Biden, meanwhile, said he was "deeply satisfied this day has come", calling the negotiations some of the "toughest" of his career.

He added that an as-yet unfinalised second phase of the agreement would bring a "permanent end to the war", saying he was "confident" the deal would hold.

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv calling for the release of the hostages embraced as news of the agreement spread, while thousands across Gaza celebrated the reported deal.

"I can't believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we've lost everything," said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old displaced from her home in Gaza City.

Hamas said the ceasefire was the "result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip".

Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to cement an agreement.

Qatar's Sheikh Mohammed said the three countries would monitor the implementation of the ceasefire via a body based in Cairo.

During the initial 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released, he said, "including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded".

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza's densely populated areas to allow for the exchanges, as well as "the return of the displaced people to their residences", he said.

The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be "finalised" during the initial 42 days, he said.

Trump hails deal

Biden said the deal would "surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families".

In his televised remarks, Israel's Herzog said there was "no greater moral, human, Jewish, or Israeli obligation than to bring our sons and daughters back to us -- whether to recover at home, or to be laid to rest".

Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The agreement came after months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gaza's history, and days ahead of the inauguration of Biden's successor Trump, who hailed the deal even before it was officially announced by the White House.

Envoys from both Trump's incoming administration and Biden's outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.

"This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November" in the US election, Trump said on social media.

The president-elect added that his White House would "continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven".

But one far-right member of Netanyahu's cabinet, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said ahead of a vote on the agreement that it was a "bad and dangerous deal for the security of the State of Israel".