Israel says it has delayed holding a cabinet meeting to ratify a ceasefire with Hamas, blaming the militant group for the hold-up, as Palestinian authorities said Israeli air strikes overnight had killed 77 people in Gaza.
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Hamas senior official Izzat el-Reshiq said the group remained committed to the ceasefire deal, agreed a day earlier, that was scheduled to take effect from Sunday to bring an end to 15-months of bloodshed.
US President Joe Biden's envoy Brett McGurk and president-elect Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff were in Doha with Egyptian and Qatari mediators working to resolve the last remaining dispute, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
The dispute involves the identities of several prisoners Hamas is demanding be released and it is expected to be resolved soon, the US official said.
The complex ceasefire accord emerged on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US to stop the war that has devastated the coastal territory and inflamed the Middle East.
The deal, scheduled to be implemented from Sunday, outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed.
Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls the enclave, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
Opponents of a ceasefire deal in Jerusalem have carried mock coffins with Israeli flags. (AP PHOTO)
The deal also paves the way for a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza where the majority of the population has been displaced and is facing acute food shortages, food security experts warned late last year.
Rows of aid trucks were lined up in the Egyptian border town of El-Arish waiting to cross into the Gaza Strip once the border is reopened.
Israel's acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country's security cabinet and government.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed the meeting, accusing Hamas of making last-minute demands and going back on agreements.
"The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.
If the deal succeeds, a ceasefire will halt fighting that has razed much of the Gaza Strip. (AP PHOTO)
The Israeli cabinet will convene on Friday to approve the ceasefire agreement, Israeli media said on Thursday.
Hamas senior official Izzat el-Reshiq said on Thursday the group is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by mediators on Wednesday.
Hardliners in Netanyahu's government were still hoping to stop the deal although a majority of ministers were expected to back it.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism Party said in a statement that its condition for remaining in the government would be a return to fighting at the end of the first phase of the deal, in order to destroy Hamas and bring all the hostages back.
Ultranationalist police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also threatened to quit the government if the ceasefire is approved.
In Jerusalem, some Israelis marched through the streets carrying mock coffins in protest at the ceasefire, blocking roads and scuffling with police.
Despite the hold-up to the cabinet meeting, political commentators on Israel's public broadcaster Kan said the latest delay would likely be resolved and that the ceasefire was a done deal.
For some Palestinians, the deal could not come soon enough.
"We lose homes every hour. We demand for this joy not to go away, the joy that was drawn on our faces - don't waste it by delaying the implementation of the truce until Sunday," Gazan man Mahmoud Abu Wardeh said.
The accord requires 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Gaza Strip every day of the ceasefire, with 50 carrying fuel.
The first phase of the agreement also has Israel releasing more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners, including many long-serving inmates.
Israelis may find it hard to see Palestinian militants who were serving life sentences for their involvement in deadly attacks in their country set free.
But successive surveys have shown broad support among the public for a deal that would free the hostages, even at what is seen as a heavy price.
"This has to be the only choice that we take in order to continue surviving as a state and as a nation, knowing that we will do anything to save each other," Jerusalem resident Chava Treitel said.
While people celebrated the pact in the Gaza Strip and Israel, Israel's military conducted more attacks according to the civil emergency service and residents.
Gaza's health ministry said at least 81 people had been killed over the past 24 hours and about 188 injured.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said at least 77 of those were killed since the ceasefire announcement.
The Israeli military is looking into the reports, a military spokesperson said.
If successful, the ceasefire will halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza Strip, killed more than 46,000 people and displaced most of the tiny enclave's pre-war population of 2.3 million, according to Gaza authorities.
With 98 foreign and Israeli hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip, phase one of the deal entails the release of 33 of them including all women, children and men over 50.
Israel launched its campaign after Hamas-led gunmen burst into Israeli border-area communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 soldiers and civilians and abducting more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
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Australian Associated Press