STORY: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he expects the Palestinian militant group Hamas to begin releasing hostages on Sunday.

Netanyahu's office issued the statement on Friday before Israel's cabinet approved a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The Gaza ceasefire deal is aimed at releasing Israeli captives and ending 15 months of war that devastated the Palestinian enclave.

The war was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 and saw more than 250 hostages taken back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military retaliation reduced much of Gaza to rubble. Palestinian officials say the operation killed over 46,000 people, and displaced most of the tiny enclave's pre-war population of 2.3 million.

In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages. Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under 19 detained in Israeli jails.

Envoys from both outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump pressed for the deal, which was brokered with the help of Qatar and Egypt.

The ceasefire faces resistance from hardliners in the Israeli government who said it was a capitulation to Hamas.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to pull his faction's support for the government if it does not go back to war to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire was completed.

And while the truce is set to take effect in two days, the fighting continued.

In Gaza itself, Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes, and the Civil Emergency Service said on Friday that at least 101 people, including 58 women and children, had been killed since the deal was announced on Wednesday.