JERUSALEM, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israel's security cabinet voted Thursday evening to create a ministerial committee that will supervise the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement's second phase, the country's public broadcaster Kan reported on Friday.
The committee will include Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Kan, while noting that both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, two far-right ministers, voted against the truce deal.
The second phase is expected to begin when all living hostages are released and the bodies of deceased hostages are returned to Israel. According to the Israeli military, Hamas is still holding the bodies of three hostages who were killed.
It is also reported that although no specific timetable has been set for the upcoming stages, the U.S. government is working on establishing an international security force made up of personnel from Arab and Muslim countries to enforce the ceasefire.
One of the key points of contention for the second phase is the disarmament of Hamas. Hamas has consistently refused to disarm, viewing it as a red line, while Israel insists that Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza must be disarmed.
Although the first phase of the ceasefire has been in place since Oct. 10, skirmishes between Israel and Hamas continued.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a Friday statement that it had killed five militants who emerged from a tunnel in eastern Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
Gaza-based health authorities reported that 312 people have been killed and 760 others injured since the ceasefire agreement took effect, while 572 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble during the same period, bringing the death toll of the war in Gaza to 69,546. ■
