A Gaza ceasefire, initially delayed for a day, is now scheduled to start on Friday, November 24, as announced by the mediator Qatar and the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
A four-day Gaza truce will now start on Friday, mediator Qatar and the armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas said after a day-long delay.
A first group of civilian hostages will be handed over at around 4:00 pm (14:00 GMT) on Friday, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said.
Thirteen people would be freed initially, all women and children from the same families, Ansari told a news conference in Doha.
Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails would also be released on Friday, he said, adding a list of inmate names had been approved, without saying how many.
An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity told the media that the Palestinians would be released on Friday evening.
Hamas says 50 women and children held in Gaza will be released in exchange for three times as many Palestinian prisoners.
Israel and Hamas, which have been at war since October 7, announced a breakthrough deal on Wednesday allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed.
The agreement is also intended to provide aid to Gaza’s 2.4 million residents who face shortages of food, water, medicine, and fuel after Israel tightened a siege of the territory.
The deal, facilitated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, is to take effect in stages that can be extended and broadened.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said that the truce with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip would begin on Friday at 7:00 am (05:00 GMT).
Qatar confirmed the start time for the pause in fighting and said that an exchange of hostages and prisoners would follow hours later.
An estimated 240 hostages were abducted during the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed about 1,200 people in the country’s south.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said that authorities were in contact with the families of all the hostages being held in Gaza after receiving “a first list of names”.
It did not immediately specify who was on the list.
A senior US official said earlier that three Americans, including three-year-old Abigail Mor Idan, were among those expected to be freed.
Qatar said no military prisoners were among those to be released.
Israel published the names of 300 Palestinian detainees who could be freed — mostly teenage boys.
The release of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails would start with those who have been detained the longest, according to Hamas official Bassem Naim.
An Israeli official told the media that “most prisoners are from the West Bank but five are from Gaza, so they will be taken back home, probably entering Gaza from the south.”
Israel has said if successful, a second exchange could see 150 more Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for another 50 hostages during an extended truce.
Qatar said the deal would include “the entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs”.
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said at least 200-300 aid trucks would enter, including eight carrying fuel and gas.
The Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee, stated that movement in Gaza would be restricted during the four-day pause.
“The movement of residents from the south of the Gaza Strip to the north will not be allowed in any way, but only from the north to the south,” he said in a post on X.
“Uncoordinated movement of trucks from the south of the Strip to the north will not be permitted,” the statement continued.
Adraee also stated that Israeli forces would be stationed in “sparsely populated areas” on the truce lines, and will continue to move on the “Netzarim axis and the coastal road”.
Although Qatari mediators held out hope the deal could lead to a more durable ceasefire, Israeli officials stressed they intended to resume their campaign as soon as the hostage releases are over.
Israel pledged to “continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza”.
Ahead of the cabinet meeting that approved the deal, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he had won assurances it would not spell the end of the war.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
