The ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Hamas will begin early Friday morning and a first group of 13 hostages will be released in the afternoon, Qatar announced on Thursday, with Hamas confirming the exchange of Palestinian prisoners.
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“The humanitarian pause will begin on Friday at 7:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. GMT, midnight Quebec time),” said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari, indicating that 13 female and child hostages will take place “ around 4:00 p.m. the same day” as the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip continued on Thursday.
The armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas confirmed on Friday at 7:00 a.m. the start of the ceasefire with a “complete cessation of military activities” for four days, during which 50 hostages, women and children under the age of 19, will be released for each return them for the release of “three Palestinian prisoners, women and children”.
Israel confirmed on Thursday that it had received “an initial list of names” of the hostages and said it was “in contact with all families.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not say whether these were all hostages, all those released or the first group affected.
Qatar, a key mediator, announced a four-day ceasefire in the fighting on Wednesday, the 47th day of the war, that included an exchange of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinians held in three Israeli prisons.
The agreement calls for an exchange of “10 hostages for 30 prisoners” on the first day of the ceasefire, releasing a total of 50 civilian hostages for 150 Palestinians over four days. Israel has published a list of 300 prisoners expected to be released, including 33 women and 267 young people under 19.
On Wednesday, the international community welcomed the agreement and saw it as a first step towards a permanent ceasefire. However, this ceasefire “cannot be just a pause,” warned the Palestinian UN ambassador, demanding that it should be used to prevent the “resumption of Israeli aggression.”
Attacks on Khan Younes
The war was triggered by an attack of unprecedented scale and violence in Israel’s history, carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7th. According to authorities, 1,200 people, the vast majority civilians, died.
Around 240 people were kidnapped on the day of the attack.
In retaliation, Israel, which had vowed to “destroy” the Palestinian Islamist movement, is relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas government that seized power in 2007 says more than 14,100 people have been killed, including more than 5,800 children.
Fighting continued throughout the night across some 360 km2 of territory under siege since October 9 by Israel, which cut off water, electricity and fuel supplies and carried out a ground offensive there since October 27.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported “dozens” of deaths in various areas of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is involved in the fighting, reported clashes in the heart of the northern city of Gaza. In the south, the attacks targeted the Khan Younes region, from which huge columns of black smoke rose, illuminated by bomb explosions.
“I think there are still about 20 people under the rubble,” a Palestinian who was searching for survivors in a destroyed building in Bani Souheila, east of the city, told AFP.
Dozens of unidentified people who died in hospitals in the territory’s north were buried in a mass grave at a cemetery in Khan Younes on Wednesday.
In Gaza City (north), the director of al-Chifa Hospital, Mohammed Abou Salmiya, was arrested, according to a doctor at the largest facility in Gaza.
Doctor Mohammed Abou Salmiya has been “transferred for questioning,” confirmed Thursday the Israeli army, which controls the hospital where it is searching underground military infrastructure it says is used by Hamas.
“Hard decision”
The Israeli government agreed to the ceasefire agreement despite internal disagreements.
“I often have to choose between a difficult decision and an even more difficult decision, and this is particularly the case with the hostages,” stressed Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday evening.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi, a Hamas supporter and whose country does not recognize Israel, viewed the “temporary ceasefire” as “a major victory” for the Islamist movement.
The main association of hostage families declared itself “happy” about an agreement for the “partial release” of the hostages, without knowing at the moment “who will be released and when.”
“It gives me hope that my daughters will return,” said Maayan Zin, mother of two children held in Gaza.
In occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian Samira Douayyat spoke of the possible release of her 26-year-old daughter Shourouk, who will have served half of her 16-year sentence. “I cry, I laugh, I shake,” she told AFP.
Inadequate ceasefire
The bombings have devastated the Palestinian territory and caused a serious humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations, including the displacement of around 1.7 million of the 2.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip, where aid is arriving.
The ceasefire will allow the entry of “a larger number of humanitarian aid and relief convoys, including fuel” than currently, Qatar said.
About 200 to 300 aid trucks would arrive in Gaza, including eight carrying fuel and gas, Hamas chief Taher al-Nounou said.
But this ceasefire is “not sufficient” to bring the necessary aid to Gaza, several international NGOs stressed, calling for a real ceasefire as many trucks wait for Israel to give the green light to pass through the Rafah border crossing.
“Before the war, we worked two or three days before a break. “Today we have been in the same place for seven days without moving,” Egyptian driver Alaa Moustafa told AFP. Prior to these hostilities, the Gaza Strip was subject to a strict Israeli blockade for 16 years.
Despite the agreement, Israel said the war would continue. “We are not stopping the war. We will continue until victory, we continue (military operations) in other sectors controlled by Hamas,” Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi said on Thursday during a review of troops in Gaza, according to the Israeli army.
“We confirm that our hands remain on the trigger,” warned the Islamist movement, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
“We don’t want a ceasefire to bring help. We want to return home,” says Maysara Assabagh, 42, who sought refuge with Khan Younès.
Hezbollah and Houthis
The war has raised fears of regional escalation as Hamas’s pro-Iran allies, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis, attack Israeli territory.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for at least ten attacks on various Israeli border positions on Thursday and said they had caused casualties. According to the official Lebanese agency, the Israeli army responded with artillery fire on southern Lebanon.
A US warship intercepted explosive drones launched by Houthi rebels from Yemen in the Red Sea on Thursday, according to the US.