The IDF carried out an airstrike in Gaza City Thursday night as government ministers convened to vote on a US-backed hostage release and ceasefire deal aimed at permanently ending the Gaza war.

Palestinian media, citing the Hamas-run Gaza civil defense agency, reported that the strike in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood caused a building to collapse, trapping some 40 people under the debris.

Civil defense said four lifeless bodies were recovered from the building, adding that “more than 40 people are still under the rubble.”

Confirming the strike, the IDF said it targeted a cell of Hamas operatives whose members were “operating close to forces and posed an immediate threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”

The impending ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, announced late Wednesday night by US President Donald Trump, had yet to take effect at the time of the attack. The signed agreement states “the war will immediately end upon the approval of the Israeli government,” which was expected to ratify the deal during a meeting that continued into early Friday morning despite some opposition from far-right ministers.

The strike came just after Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya confirmed the deal’s terms and said the terror group received US guarantees that the war would end.

“Today we announce an agreement to end the war, [see Israel] withdraw from the Strip and carry out a prisoner exchange,” he said in a speech, adding that Hamas “guarantees from the mediators and the Americans that the war has ended indefinitely.”

In the short term, the US-backed ceasefire deal will see the release within days of the 48 remaining hostages held in Gaza. In exchange, Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Ahead of the full cabinet vote, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said his far-right Religious Zionism would not vote in favor of the deal, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party would oppose it.

Ben Gvir expressed joy that the hostages were expected to return home, but said that his party could not vote “in favor of a deal that releases those murderous terrorists” while vowing to oppose the agreement.

Otzma Yehudit will remain in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition for now, Ben Gvir said, while reiterating his warning that if Hamas is not dismantled, the party will “bring down the government.”

Those slated for release include 250 security prisoners, many convicted of deadly terror attacks on Israelis, alongside 1,700 Gazan detainees who were jailed following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack — in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages into the enclave.

The deal will also guarantee a surge of aid into Gaza after more than two years of war, over the course of which over 67,000 people were killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Nurit Yohanan, Ariela Carmel and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.