The strike at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem has ended, it was announced on Tuesday night, after marathon talks between management and the striking employees resulted in an interim agreement.

Nurses and non-medical staff are expected to return to work on Wednesday morning. Doctors, however, remain on strike and Hadassah is hoping to meet with them later in the day and convince them to resume regular operations.

The agreement, which will be in effect for a period of two and a half months, stipulates that the wages of Hadassah employees who earn less than 15 thousand shekels a month will not be cut.

In addition, the agreement stipulates that any hearings before dismissal to which employees have been summoned will be suspended.

The breakthrough in negotiations came several hours after employees announced they intended to stage a “sleep-in” and spend the night at the hospital.

In announcing this move, the workers stated that this will serve not only as a wake-up call to Hadassah’s management, but will also serve as a final wake-up call to the Ministry of Finance.

Late Tuesday night, the Director-General of the Hadassah Hospital, Dr. Avigdor Kaplan, and Avi Nissankoren, the chairman of the Histadrut Trade Union division, met to discuss the ongoing strike. As progress was made in the talks, the representatives of the workers were invited to join them.

Nissankoren welcomed the end of the strike, saying, “I am pleased that the hospital will go back to work today for the benefit of the residents of Jerusalem and the area.”

“We all have an important task of reaching a final agreement in which the Ministry of Finance, the management of hospital and the Histadrut will be partners,” he added.

The ongoing strike at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem has already driven several senior members of both Hadassah Ein Kerem and Hadassah Mount Scopus to quit, fed up over the hospital’s inability to compensate for missing wages and frustrated over the tedious negotiations.