Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the approval of his Cabinet early Wednesday for a deal that would exchange prisoners in Israel for hostages in Gaza, the AP reports. In a televised address Tuesday night, Netanyahu had assured his nation that the war against Hamas will go on either way. "Tonight we stand before a difficult decision, but it is the right decision. All security organizations support it fully," he said of the proposal. Israeli officials said the tentative deal calls for Hamas to release 50 women and children, while about 150 Palestinian women and teenagers being held in Israeli prisons would be freed, the New York Times reports. Hamas took about 240 hostages in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The Cabinet debated the exchange proposal into early Wednesday. The fighting would be stopped for several days under the terms; Netanyahu told his ministers that the break was only tactical and that the offensive against Hamas in Gaza would resume. "We are at war, and we will continue the war," he said. "We will continue until we achieve all our goals." The exchange probably wouldn't take place before Thursday to allow for judicial review in Israel. Netanyahu's government has faced pressure from the hostages' families to reach a deal for their release. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
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