In a major move to de-escalate the ongoing situation in the West Bank, the Israeli government, early on Wednesday (Nov 21), approved an agreement to free roughly 50 hostages who were abducted into the Gaza Strip during the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ onslaught on Oct 7, in exchange for the release of imprisoned Palestinian women and minors.
Tel Aviv has also agreed to a multi-day ceasefire and has also vowed to allow more fuel and humanitarian aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave.
“The government approved the broad outlines of the first stage of an agreement under which at least 50 kidnapped people — women and children — will be released over four days during which there will be a lull in the fighting,” the statement said.
Earlier on Tuesday (Nov 21), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked his government to back the deal in order to secure the release of all hostages.
He said that though this was a difficult decision to take but also the right thing to do.
“Tonight, we face a difficult decision, but it is the right decision, all the security factors fully support it, they clarified in their full professional assessment that our security of our forces will be guaranteed during the days of ceasefire and that the intelligence effort will be maintained,” Netanyahu said.
He further said that United States President Joe Biden had helped him to improve the framework, “to include more hostages at a lower price”.
“The entire security establishment fully supports it.”
Israeli army vows to continue war
Following the truce, the Israeli military vowed to continue its war against Hamas and pledged to eliminate the militant group.
“The Israeli government, the Israeli army and the security forces will continue the war to bring back all those kidnapped, eliminate Hamas and ensure that there is no longer any threat to the State of Israel from Gaza,” the official statement said as per news agency AFP reports.
(With inputs from agencies)
