After yet another night of waiting for prisoners, Axios reports: “The Gaza deal was officially signed in Doha on Thursday, but the Israeli cabinet is not expected to vote on it until Saturday evening.”
Early on January 17, the Israeli negotiating team informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that consensus had been reached on the prisoner deal. Netanyahu subsequently ordered the Political Security Cabinet to hold a meeting before the cabinet meets to approve the deal.
The Times of Israel reported late on January 17: “The Gaza ceasefire agreement will be implemented as scheduled on Sunday, with the first prisoners to be released at 4 p.m..” Shortly afterward, Netanyahu’s office confirmed: “Based on the approval of the Cabinet and the entry into force of the agreement, the agreement can be implemented according to the mechanism scheduled for Sunday.”
And so finally Israel, the Palestinian movement Hamas, the United States and Qatar officially signed an agreement for the release of hostages and the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed the resumption of military operations after the first phase of the agreement, the Washington Post wrote. The identities of the kidnapped people who will be released will be known today.
The number of Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment who will be released as part of the agreement is 290, their identities will also be made known today. The citizens of Gaza arrested during the ground operation will be released as part of the exchange agreement. According to Hareetz: “The #Israeli Prison Service has begun preparations for the release of Palestinian prisoners.”
Representatives of the Shin Bet and the army are already in Cairo to discuss the issues of the Philadelphia Axis and the Rafah Crossing as part of the agreement. The mediators are also discussing the establishment of a joint operations room in Cairo to oversee the ceasefire. A meeting between Palestinian factions is scheduled for next week in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to discuss the form of governance in Gaza after the end of the war and the formation of a national administration.
Hamas issued a press release calling on the international community to intervene to stop Israel’s attacks after the ceasefire was signed. “We call on the international community, the United Nations and all parties concerned to take urgent and immediate measures to stop this Zionist terrorism.”
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut and pledged support for the government under the wing of UNIFIL.
The Syrian Interior Ministry announced an operation to prevent weapons smuggling into Lebanon and their confiscation. Senior EU official Khaja Labib met with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Shara in Damascus and announced a €235 million EU aid package.
AP satellite images reveal a “mysterious” airstrip under construction on Yemen’s Abdel Khoury island, in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, which appears to be owned by the United Arab Emirates, which is expanding its military presence in the region.
On the morning of January 17, US strikes in Yemen’s Harf Sufyan district in Amran governorate with 5 raids.
And now a look at the military situations as of 2:30 p.m. on January 17.
The Syrian Public Security Directorate announces that it has foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon through an illegal border crossing in the Tartous area. Images published by Syrian media show a shipment of assault rifles and an unknown type of advanced weapons that were captured and seized by the new authorities.
Images from Lebanon show hostile Israeli movements of tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry forces inside the city of Houla. Israeli forces also carried out a shelling in the city of Mays al-Jabal on January 17.
The Lebanese army is preparing to enter about twenty sites in the eastern sector that it had vacated at the beginning of Israel’s aggression.
Massive demonstration in the Jordanian capital, Amman, to celebrate the announcement of the ceasefire in Gaza with the slogan “Gaza has won”. The number of victims in Gaza, however, rises from the announcement of the ceasefire agreement until 12:00 on Friday 17 January 2025 to 111 deaths.
On the night of the 16th, the areas of Al-Tawam, Jabalia and Al-Saftawi, north of the Gaza Strip, were bombed. And again on January 17, people were injured by occupation drone fire in Jabalia al-Balad, north of the Gaza Strip. Israeli artillery shelling hit the area of Jabalia al-Nazla, north of Gaza City.
The area east of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, was bombed.
Israeli forces on January 17 attacked the Wadi al-Ain neighborhood in the village of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, West Bank.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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