JERUSALEM 

Israel’s Security Cabinet convened on Thursday evening to vote on a Gaza ceasefire agreement with Hamas.  

The meeting was scheduled to start at 5 pm local time, but was held more than an hour later to discuss and approve the details of the deal, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.  

A subsequent government meeting was postponed to be held at 8 pm on Thursday to approve the agreement.  

A government spokesperson earlier said that the Gaza ceasefire agreement will take effect within 24 hours of being approved.  

“Within 24 hours of the Cabinet meeting, the ceasefire in Gaza will begin,” Shosh Bedrosian said, without mentioning a specific time for its implementation.  

The ceasefire agreement was announced at dawn on Thursday following four days of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel in Egypt’s Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh, with mediation from Türkiye, Egypt, Qatar, and the US.