Daily News

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has announced the Gaza ceasefire will start on Sunday at 8:30am local time in Gaza (06:30 GMT). “We advise our brethren to remain cautious, exercise the utmost care and wait for instructions from official sources,” spokesperson Majed al-Ansari wrote in a post on X in Arabic.

A Gaza ceasefire deal backed by Hamas, the US and governments worldwide - but with Israeli politicians the final hurdle. Implementing it will mean overcoming major obstacles, too. What are the challenges? And what's needed from each side?

From embracing Zionism as a Holocaust survivor to becoming a vocal critic of Israeli policies, renowned doctor and author Gabor Maté reflects on the evolution in his thinking, on trauma as a driving force behind Zionism and Israel, and on how collective Jewish trauma has been exploited by Israel to justify its war in Gaza.

Daniel Levy, former Israeli negotiator and president of the US/Middle East Project, joins us live from London. He explains that while the security cabinet has approved the deci-sion, factions led by Smotrich of the Religious Zionism Party and Ben-Gvir of the Jewish Power Party voted against it. Levy highlights, "If Netanyahu loses both factions, he no longer has a majority. However, for now, they are not threatening to bring down the government, and the opposition may provide a safety net."

Alon Pinkas, the former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, speaks to Al Jazeera about how Israel’s Finance Minister Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s opposition to the ceasefire deal could affect Netanyahu. If the ministers withdraw from the government, he said the Israeli prime minister has three options. Meanwhile, Hamdah Salhut joins live from Amman, because Israel has banned Al Jazeera from operating there and in the occupied West Bank.

What’s in the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and what are some of the challenges for the deal to hold?

The convictions threaten to derail talks between Khan’s PTI and the government aimed at settling a long-running political feud. Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was on Friday sentenced to 14 years in prison, and his wife Bushra Bibi to seven years in a case related to the misuse of authority and corruption involving Khan’s Al-Qadir University Project Trust. Khan was also given a fine of 1 million Pakistani rupees ($3,500), while Bibi was fined half that amount.

US President Joe Biden has sought to claim the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal as a major foreign policy win in the last days of his administration, saying the agreement was introduced by his team in the spring of 2024, while President-elect Donald Trump has claimed merit for the breakthrough. Former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb told Al Jazeera that the idea that Trump sealed the deal was “not correct”, but that the incoming administration nonetheless played a pivotal role in persuading the Israeli prime minister.

senior political analyst Marwan Bishara highlights that Hamas has compelling rea-sons to support the continuation of the ceasefire, as it aligns with their interest in progressing to phase two, which involves discussions on reconstruction. He emphasizes that Hamas would also favor moving to phase three, where the future of a potential Palestinian state could be negotiated. Bishara suggests that the Palestinian side is motivated to advance through these stages sincerely and in good faith.

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, has told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu ran out of options to stop a ceasefire from being implemented. “The ceasefire will happen. Netanyahu cannot block it,” Barghouti said. “He manipulated and tried to postpone it and to procrastinate because his main goal is to keep his government together. But it is very clear now that he cannot manoeuvre anymore.”