Gaza’s interior ministry called on civilians to follow its directives in the coming days [Getty/archive]
Gaza’s interior ministry said Saturday it is preparing to deploy its forces across the Palestinian enclave as a ceasefire to end Israel’s offensive goes into effect on Sunday morning.
The Israeli government approved the ceasefire and prisoner-exchange deal with Hamas in the early hours of Saturday morning, removing the final hurdle to achieving a vital period of calm for the devastated Gaza Strip after 15 months of war.
The agreement, which will come in three phases, was mediated by the US – which has backed Israel militarily and politically throughout its war on Gaza – and Qatar and Egypt. It is expected to come into effect at 8:30 am local time (6:30 GMT).
An operations room that will include the US, Qatar, Egypt, Israel and Palestine will monitor the implementation of the ceasefire deal, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News channel reported Friday evening.
“The Ministry of Interior and National Security agencies will begin to spread throughout all [five] governorates of the Gaza Strip and carry out the sacred duty of serving our people, as soon as the agreement to stop the genocide comes into force,” a statement by the ministry said.
“Despite the heavy price that the ministry has paid from [sacrificing] its best leaders and children, it continued to work with all available capabilities under extremely complex circumstances and responded with everything at its disposal to the [Israeli] occupation’s plans to spread chaos within the Palestinian community in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.
The ministry called on civilians to “preserve public and private property, refrain from any actions that may pose a threat to their lives, and to cooperate with officers and members of the police, security, and service agencies, in order to ensure their security and safety”.
It also called on people to adhere to all directives that will be issued by authorities in the coming days.
Gaza has been governed by Hamas since 2007, but Israel has outright refused the group remains in control of the enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza – had said at the start of the war he wanted to completely dismantle Hamas.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday the Palestinian Authority was ready to assume “full responsibility” in post-war Gaza, something Israel has also opposed.
The PA is run by Hamas rival Fatah and has control over parts of the occupied West Bank.
Gaza’s power structure in the long run remains unclear.
The war, which erupted on October 7, 2023, has killed around 47,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, with more than 10,000 others missing and believed to be dead. It has destroyed much of the enclave and resulted in the spread of disease and famine, with practically of all the besieged coastal strip’s 2.3 million population displaced.
