CNN –
A four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas begins on Friday morning. Civilian hostages and Palestinian prisoners are set to be released later this afternoon, Qatar announced on Thursday, just hours after the deal was originally due to come into force.
According to a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari, the lull in fighting will begin at 7 a.m. local time (midnight ET). 13 women and children hostages are to be released at 4 p.m.
The list of hostages expected to be released has been handed over to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, Al-Ansari said, adding that communication and discussions between all mediating parties continued until Thursday morning.
The Mossad will also provide the Qataris with a list of Palestinian prisoners expected to be released, he added. “Once we have confirmed both lists, we can begin the process of removing people,” the spokesman said.
Responding to a question from CNN, Al-Ansari said he could not reveal which route the released hostages would take, but would work with the Red Cross and the “parties to the conflict.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had received a preliminary list of hostages expected to be released.
Ofir Gendelman, the Israeli prime minister’s spokesman for the Arab world, wrote on X: “Israel confirms that a preliminary list of names of those abducted has been received. The relevant authorities are checking the details of the list and are now communicating with all the families of the abductees.”
An Israeli official told CNN on Wednesday that the ceasefire would begin at 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) on Thursday, after which at least 50 of the more than 230 women and children would be released is held Hostage in Gaza. But plans to release the hostages were delayed late Wednesday, just hours before the lull in fighting was originally expected to begin.
Under the agreement outlined earlier, 150 Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons. The affected prisoners are women and children, Hamas said on Wednesday, adding that the agreement also calls for the import of hundreds of trucks carrying aid, medical supplies and fuel to all parts of the besieged area.
The Israeli government on Wednesday released a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners for possible release as Israel offers a possible second phase of exchanges.
The list includes the age of the prisoners and the charges on which they are being held – the most common being stone throwing and “damaging regional security”. Others are listed as being detained on charges of supporting illegal terrorist organizations, charges of illegal weapons, sedition and at least two charges of attempted murder.
Most Palestinian prisoners eligible for release are male teenagers aged 16 to 18 – children under the UN definition – although a handful are as young as 14. By CNN’s count, about 33 are women.
Israel’s National Security Council had previously said in a statement that the first group of hostages would not be released before Friday. An Israeli official told CNN that the start of an agreed-upon temporary ceasefire had also been delayed until Friday.
“Talks to release our hostages are progressing and ongoing. “The start of the clearance process will take place in accordance with the original agreement between both sides and not before Friday,” the statement said.
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During a demonstration in Tel Aviv on November 21, families and friends of hostages held in Gaza demand that Netanyahu bring them home.
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A billboard in Jerusalem features portraits of Israeli hostages captured by Palestinian militants.
Comments on ongoing planning are consistent with those of American officials.
A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council stressed in a statement late Wednesday that the hostage deal “remains agreed upon,” adding that the parties are “working out final logistical details, particularly for the first day of implementation.”
“We believe nothing should be left to chance when the hostages come home,” said NSC spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. “Our primary goal is to ensure they are brought home safely. This is on the right track and we hope that implementation will begin on Friday morning.”
An Israeli official familiar with the matter downplayed its seriousness, attributing it to “fairly insignificant implementation details.”
At a news conference on Wednesday evening before the delay was announced, Netanyahu expressed confidence that the agreement would soon come into force, although he gave few details about its implementation.
However, the prime minister warned on Thursday that evacuating the first group of hostages from Gaza was “not without its challenges.”
“We hope to get this first tranche out, and then we are determined to get everyone out,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Officials and analysts in Israel have long warned that any agreement would be precarious until the hostages crossed the border safely.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued its ground and air operations in Gaza on Wednesday, carrying out attacks in the northeast and central Gaza Strip, ahead of the expected start of the ceasefire. According to Palestinian sources, areas further south, including Khan Younis and Rafah, were also hit.
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Israeli forces continued to attack targets through Thursday, the IDF said, including in northwest Jabalya.
The IDF also said Thursday that Israeli soldiers located a tunnel shaft in a mosque and located and hit another tunnel shaft in an agricultural area in Beit Hanoun. It said IDF soldiers located “numerous weapons” and identified a tunnel shaft in a civilian home in the area.
In a briefing on Wednesday before the delay was announced, Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman, called the impending ceasefire a “complicated process” that is “not yet complete.”
The process “could take time and span multiple phases,” he added.
The agreement marked a major diplomatic breakthrough, nearly seven weeks into a conflict that has escalated into a major humanitarian crisis in the enclave. The announcement was greeted with relief and heightened anticipation by the hostages’ families.
The deal, as chief negotiator Qatar outlined in a statement, calls for the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a number of Palestinian women and children in Israeli prisons. The ceasefire, meanwhile, would also allow the entry of “a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief supplies,” the statement said.
There is a possibility that the pause will last up to ten days, but Israeli officials believe it is unlikely to last that long.
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A Palestinian medic walks among civilians on the rubble of a building after an Israeli attack on Rafah.
Netanyahu said in signing the deal that there would be an additional one-day break in fighting for every additional 10 hostages released.
According to the Israeli military, Hamas is holding 236 hostages in Gaza, including foreigners from 26 countries. The mass kidnappings at gunpoint took place on October 7 when Hamas militants crossed the border in a coordinated and bloody surprise attack, killing about 1,200 people – the largest such attack on Israel since the country’s founding in 1948.
Before the deal, only a handful of hostages had been released.
Israel responded to the attack by declaring war on Hamas and imposing a siege on Gaza, cutting off supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel while launching a relentless air and ground attack. Around 12,700 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, which relies on information from Hamas-run health authorities.
This is a developing story and will be updated.