Gaza City, Gaza - A temporary ceasefire in Gaza will begin Sunday morning at 8:30 AM local time, mediator Qatar said on Saturday after Israel's cabinet voted to approve the truce and hostage release deal.

"As coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8:30 am on Sunday, January 19, local time in Gaza," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on X.

"We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources."

Israel's justice ministry announced 737 Palestinian prisoners and hostages would be freed as part of the first phase of the deal – none before 4:00 PM local time Sunday.

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"The government has approved the hostage return plan," the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Saturday after the full cabinet held its vote.

Netanyahu's office said the deal "supports achieving the objectives of the war," which he has repeatedly named as "total victory" over Hamas.

Qatar and the US, which mediated the deal along with Egypt, had announced it on Wednesday.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said an initial 42-day phase would see 33 hostages released by militants in Gaza.

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza's densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return "to their residences", the Qatari prime minister said.

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In an interview with Sky News, he revealed that the final deal was virtually identical to that proposed at the end of December. Israel, backed by the US, repeatedly scuppered negotiations over the past 12 months.

An Israeli military official said reception points had been established at Kerem Shalom, Erez, and Reim, where hostages would be joined by doctors and mental health specialists before being "transported via helicopter or vehicle" to hospitals in Israel.

Israel "is then expected to release the first group of Palestinian prisoners, including several with high sentences," a source revealed on condition of anonymity.

Following Wednesday's announcement, Israeli bombardment of the territory killed at least 113 people, Gaza's civil defense rescue agency said on Friday.

On Saturday, AFP photos showed Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Yunis mourning four members of a family killed in another Israeli strike.

Explosions were heard over Jerusalem Saturday morning after warning sirens blared, and the military said a projectile had been launched from Yemen, whose Houthi rebels are fighting in solidarity with Palestinians.

Hamas' armed wing warned that continued Israeli strikes risked the lives of hostages and could turn their "freedom... into a tragedy."

In more than 15 months of a brutal assault on every facet of Palestinian life in Gaza, Israel has killed at least 46,788 people, the vast majority of them civilians. According to human rights organizations, legal experts, and scholars, its actions have passed the threshold into outright genocide.