A four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas begins in Gaza on Friday at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), This was announced by Majed al-Ansari, spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry. The ceasefire, initially expected to last four to five days, was announced early Wednesday and has raised hopes for a more permanent pause in violence.
The hostages are expected to be released on Friday afternoon. Israel and Hamas have exchanged lists of people to be released, with Hamas expected to release 13 women and children. Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Ansari said this. He did not say how many Palestinian women and children would be released on Friday or when that would happen. Israel has notified the families of the hostages, who are to be released on Friday, said Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari. Joe Biden said he was “crossing his fingers” that a 3-year-old Israeli-American girl would be released.
In total, Hamas has agreed to release at least 50 of the more than 240 mostly Israeli hostages It has maintained this position under the terms of the agreement since the bloody attacks on southern Israel on October 7. In return, Israel will release at least 150 Palestinian prisoners and allow up to 300 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip after more than six weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling blockade of fuel, food, medicine and other vital supplies.
In a separate agreement, Hamas plans to unconditionally release 23 Thai hostages it is holding in Gaza, according to a report by the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site. The release of the Thai hostages came after Iranian-brokered talks, the newspaper reported on Thursday.
A special flight evacuated 103 Russian citizens from Gaza. The Russian Emergencies Ministry announced this early on Friday. In a post on Telegram, the ministry said the group flew to Moscow aboard a chartered Ilyushin-76 plane, Portal reported. The post said 101 Russian nationals were transferred from Gaza to Egypt in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of Russian evacuees to over 750. More than 650 people were flown to Russia, including more than 300 children.
The exchange of Palestinian and Israeli female and child hostages and prisoners was scheduled to take place on Thursday but was postponed as logistical problems were resolved at the last minute. Sources close to the negotiations said Israel submitted a series of late requests to clarify practical issues and demanded full identification of the hostages Hamas wanted to release.
The diplomatic breakthrough promises the first break in seven weeks of war in Gaza and some relief both for the 2.3 million Palestinians in the area who have been subjected to intense Israeli bombing, and for families in Israel who fear for the fate of their loved ones.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the military would resume the fight against Hamas “with intensity” for at least two more months. Gallant addressed Israeli troops on Thursday, instructing them to “organize supplies of weapons and prepare to continue” during the “brief” lull in fighting.
The Israeli army arrested the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Thursday, more than a week after it surrounded and searched the medical facility. Mohammad abu Salmiya and other paramedics were arrested, a colleague said. The IDF reportedly arrested them while they were traveling with a World Health Organization evacuation convoy. The IDF confirmed that Abu Salmiya was arrested and handed over to the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service for further questioning. Only two doctors remain in al-Shifa to treat the remaining estimated 200 patients, the hospital’s head of plastic surgery said.
Israeli forces bombed at least 300 targets from the air, killing dozens of Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry said 27 people were killed in an attack on a school affiliated with the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that dozens of people were killed in Israeli bombings in Nuseirat and its camp in the central Gaza Strip and in Jabaliya in the north. Photojournalist Mohammad Moin Ayyash and his family were among those killed in Nuseirat.
The IDF said it killed the Hamas naval commander in Khan Younis in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip. Amar Abu Jalalah was killed along with another member of the Hamas naval force, the IDF said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. The director of the Health Ministry, which is run by the Hamas government, said another 6,000 people had been reported missing and were feared to be buried under the rubble. Israel’s attack on Gaza followed Hamas’ attack on October 7, which killed at least 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron met Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel. and expressed hope that the planned temporary ceasefire with Hamas would be an “opportunity to decisively free hostages and provide aid to Gaza.” The Israeli prime minister told Cameron that the eradication of Hamas, which he described as a “genocidal terror cult”, was a prerequisite for peace in the Middle East. His comments gave the impression that Netanyahu was currently interested in nothing other than a military solution to the future of Israel’s security.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called on Israel to rethink its Gaza offensive, telling its president and prime minister that the number of Palestinian deaths is “truly unbearable.”and that the response to last month’s Hamas terrorist attacks must not include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children.”