A Four-Day Truce Between Israel and Palestinian Islamist Group Hamas to Begin on Friday
In an important development in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, a four-day truce is set to begin on Friday morning. According to a statement by mediators in Qatar, a first group of 13 Israeli women and child hostages will be released later that day.
The truce, the first in a brutal, near seven-week-old war, is scheduled to commence at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, as announced by Qatar’s foreign ministry.
Aid will start flowing into Gaza, with the first hostages being freed at 4 p.m., and Palestinians expected to be released from Israeli jails, according to ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari, who addressed reporters in the Qatari capital Doha.
“We all hope that this truce will lead to a chance to start a wider work to achieve a permanent truce,” Ansari added.
Hamas, which was expected to declare a truce with Israel a day earlier on Thursday, confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities from its forces would cease.
Israel has received an initial list of hostages to be freed from the Gaza Strip and is reportedly in touch with families, according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office.
The conflict was sparked when Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and seized around 240 hostages after bursting across the border fence on October 7. Subsequently, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, with around 40% of the casualties being children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory.
It has been disclosed that the truce could last beyond the initial four days if the militants free at least 10 hostages per day. A second wave of releases could see as many as 100 hostages go free by the end of November, according to a Palestinian source.
Both sides have indicated that they will resume fighting once the truce is over and Qatar has confirmed that an operations room in Doha would monitor the truce and the release of hostages, with direct lines of communication with Israel, the Hamas political office in Doha, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Qatar has expressed hope to negotiate a subsequent agreement to release additional hostages from Gaza by the fourth day of the truce.
Reporting by Reuters bureaux
Writing by Peter Graff and Andrew Heavens
Editing by William Maclean and Mark Heinrich