TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a last-minute dispute with Hamas was holding up Israeli approval of a long-awaited ceasefire that would pause the fighting in the Gaza Strip and release dozens of hostages. Israeli airstrikes, meanwhile, killed at least 72 people in the war-ravaged territory.

The deal, mediated by the United States, offered a glimmer of hope in a conflict that has taken an immense human toll.

Rifts with Hamas and a far-right minister’s threat to resign complicated progress toward the Israeli cabinet’s vote on the deal, which includes the release of hostages.

The city of Jenin in the northern West Bank has been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades.

Israel and Hamas have agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal following 15 months of war, mediators Qatar and the US say. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday so long as it was approved by the Israeli cabinet.

President Joe Biden and his top diplomats, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, had sought closure during his term.

If the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal goes according to the current draft, then fighting will stop in Gaza for 42 days, and dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed.

A visual guide to how much has changed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its military response to Hamas's attacks on 7 October.

Just as Palestinians in Gaza were reinvigorated with a sense of hope Wednesday after news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, deadly Israeli airstrikes continued to rain down on people just hours later,

Israel has continued to bomb the enclave as it prepares to implement a cease-fire. Civil Defense said Gaza City had the highest toll with more than 80 killed.

Negotiators from Israel and Hamas reached a final agreement on a ceasefire and hostage release deal after eleventh-hour negotiations in Qatar, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Friday local time, though the country’s cabinet and coalition government have yet to sign off on the deal.