Israeli cabinet reportedly set to delay vote on hostage-ceasefire deal until Saturday night, meaning deal may not take effect before Monday

People walk past an installation consisting of a clock counting the time since Hamas's October 7, 2023 massacre, set up on a square outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now informally called the "Hostages Square", in Tel Aviv on January 16, 2025. (Jack Guez/AFP)
People walk past an installation consisting of a clock counting the time since Hamas's October 7, 2023 massacre, set up on a square outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now informally called the "Hostages Square", in Tel Aviv on January 16, 2025. (Jack Guez/AFP)

The full cabinet is set to delay its vote on the hostage-ceasefire deal until Saturday night, Channel 12 reports, meaning that implementation of the deal might not start before Monday.

The report says ministers will meet as planned tomorrow to discuss the deal, but that the meeting will continue on Saturday night.

After the vote, a list of Palestinian security prisoners to be freed will be published, and opponents will have 48 hours to petition against these releases to the Supreme Court.

The report says it was decided by the Prime Minister’s Office that if the original timetable were to be maintained, and a vote to be taken tomorrow, this would mean opponents of the prisoner releases would have almost no time to lodge appeals because of Shabbat. The court is not expected to intervene in the releases.

Channel 12 says judicial sources have made clear that the formal 48-hour period for petitions can be shortened, as happened ahead of the November 2023 truce, and that the intended Sunday start of the deal need not be affected, but that the Prime Minister’s Office was not persuaded.

The deal is currently scheduled to take effect on Sunday at 12:15 p.m., with the first three hostages to be released soon after.

US President-elect Donald Trump is to be sworn into office on Monday.

The TV report says Israel’s negotiators are staying in Doha until the deal is signed and will return to participate in the cabinet discussions.

According to a leaked copy of the agreement, over 1,700 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed in return for 33 Israeli hostages in the first phase of the deal: 700 terrorists, 250-300 of whom are serving life terms; 1,000 Gazans captured since October 8 in fighting in the Strip; and 47 rearrested prisoners from the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal.

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