Chief Hamas negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, on Thursday said in a speech televised on Al Jazeera that the Palestinian group had received assurances from the United States and other mediators that Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has come to an end.
"We have received assurances from the brotherly mediators and the US administration, all confirming that the war has come to a complete end," Khalil al-Hayya said.
He stressed that 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons, along with 1,700 people detained from Gaza by the Israeli military since the war began, will be released as part of the ceasefire deal. All Palestinian women and children detained by Israel will also be released, he said.
However, Israel had on Thursday said that prominent Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti would not be among the prisoners set to be released as part of the deal. Though Barghouti's name was approved by the mediators, it was reportedly unilaterally removed by the Israeli prime minister's office later.
Barghouti -- a member of the Fatah movement -- has significant influence in Gaza.
The Hamas official's statement came as multiple attacks by the Israeli military were reported from across the Gaza Strip after US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire deal between the Palestinian resistance group and Israel late on Wednesday.
Israel said that the ceasefire would only begin "within 24 hours" after a meeting of the security cabinet scheduled for 1400 GMT on Thursday.
"Within 24 hours after the cabinet meeting takes place, a ceasefire will then begin in Gaza," government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told journalists.
Bedrosian also confirmed that Israel had signed the final draft of the agreement in Egypt on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that he would vote against the ceasefire deal with Hamas as it proposes releasing hundreds of Palestinians held in Israel's prisons.
"The heart of all of us fills with joy... at the fact that all the hostages are expected to return... However, alongside this joy, it is absolutely forbidden to ignore the question of the price: the release of thousands of terrorists, including 250 murderers who are expected to be freed from prisons. This is an unbearable heavy price," Ben Gvir wrote on X.
"I cannot vote in favour of a deal that releases those murderous terrorists, and we will oppose it in the government," he said in a statement posted while the Israeli cabinet was voting on the deal.
