Israel's security cabinet approved in a vote on Friday a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend, the prime minister's office said.
The agreement, which must now go to the full cabinet for a final green light, would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza's deadliest-ever war, reports AFP.
It would also launch on Sunday the release of hostages held by Hamas in the territory since October 7, 2023.
Under the deal struck by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, the ensuing weeks should also see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people since the deal was announced. Israel's military said on Thursday it had hit about 50 targets across Gaza over the past day.
The full cabinet will convene later Friday to approve the deal.
The ceasefire would take effect on the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration as US president.
Saying the proposed deal "supports achieving the objectives of the war", the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the security cabinet recommended that the government approve it.
His office had earlier said the release of hostages would begin on Sunday.
Even before the start of the truce, Gazans displaced by the war to other parts of the territory were preparing to return home.
"I will go to kiss my land," said Nasr al-Gharabli, who fled his home in Gaza City for a camp further south in the territory.
"If I die on my land, it would be better than being here as a displaced person."
In Israel, there was joy but also anguish over the 251 hostages taken in the deadliest attack in the country's history.
Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday falls on Saturday, is the youngest hostage.
Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri had died in an air strike, but with the Israeli military yet to confirm their deaths, many are clinging to hope.
"I think of them, these two little redheads, and I get shivers," said 70-year-old Osnat Nyska, whose grandchildren attended nursery with the Bibas brothers.
'Confident'
Meanwhile, Two far-right ministers had voiced opposition to the deal, with one threatening to quit the cabinet, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he believed the ceasefire would go ahead on schedule.
"I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday," he said.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds since the the deal was announced on Wednesday.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their "freedom... into a tragedy".
The war began with the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Of the 251 people taken hostage, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israeli strikes have destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Bd-Pratidin English/ARK
