In Israel, three ministers from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party resigned over a deal with Hamas.
This is reported by the Times of Israel.
These are the Minister of National Security and head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as well as the Minister of Heritage, Amichai Eliyahu, and the Minister of Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who are his party members.
In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Otzma Chairman Yehudit Ben-Gvir boasted of his “significant achievements” under his leadership but complained about “the prime minister’s agreement to surrender to terror, which crosses all ideological red lines”. The ceasefire, he said, is “a complete victory for terrorism”.
The party has left the coalition and will not return to the negotiating table “without a complete victory over Hamas and the full implementation of the war’s goals”. Gvir stressed that the far-right has no intention of “working to overthrow the government,” but will vote on ideological issues “according to our worldview and our conscience”.
Gaza ceasefire agreement
On the evening of January 15, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. This was confirmed by the US President-elect Donald Trump. The move could ease tensions in the Middle East, where conflicts continue in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
The ceasefire agreement was originally scheduled to take effect at 8:30 a.m. today, but Israel continued to attack the Gaza Strip because Hamas failed to provide a list of hostages to be released today in time, thereby violating the terms of the agreement.
However, Hamas later provided lists of three hostages who would be released today, Israel confirmed this, and the agreement went into effect at 11:15 a.m. local time.
Media reports say that in the first phase, IDF will withdraw to within 700 meters of the Gaza Strip, Israel will release approximately 2 000 Palestinians and Hamas will release 33 Israeli prisoners. Israel will allow the wounded in Gaza to move through the territory to receive medical care and will open the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The IDF troops will begin to withdraw from the Philadelphia Corridor.
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