The full Israeli cabinet passed the agreement during a meeting that continued into the Jewish Sabbath, setting up the first reprieve in Gaza in over a year.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are eager to leave miserable tent camps and return to their homes if a long-awaited ceasefire agreement halts the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel and Hamas have agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal following 15 months of war, mediators Qatar and the US say. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday so long as it was approved by the Israeli cabinet.

Israeli government officials said they would wait at least until tomorrow before voting to ratify a deal to pause the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of dozens of Israeli hostages. The vote, which had been expected today, was delayed as diplomats raced to work through last-minute disputes between the two sides.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, opening the way to a possible end to a devastating 15-month conflict.

The deal is set to pause fighting in Gaza for six weeks as well as lead to the release of 33 hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

A year after Israel vowed to wipe Hamas ‘off the face of the earth’ following the 7 October attack into Israel the conflict has spread across the Middle East

A visual guide to how much has changed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its military response to Hamas's attacks on 7 October.

Just as Palestinians in Gaza were reinvigorated with a sense of hope Wednesday after news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, deadly Israeli airstrikes continued to rain down on people just hours later,

Though their losses are incalculable, the people of Gaza were overjoyed by the announcement of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.

Qatari mediators’ announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza to begin on 19 January ending the 15-month genocide inflicted on the besieged and decimated territory has brought relief to Palestinians at the prospect of respite from the daily regime of Israeli bombardment,