Qatar assures that 13 hostages will be released today starting at four in the afternoon

2023-11-24 03:19:05

Qatar has provided the first details of what the ceasefire will be like and the number of hostages released. The Qatari Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that the temporary ceasefire between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) will begin today, Friday at 7:00 a.m. (local time) and the first hostages, a group of 13 people, will be released at 4:00 p.m.

The agreement, in which Qatar has acted as mediator, contemplates the progressive release of a total of 50 people kidnapped by Hamas in the attacks of October 7, in exchange for a pause in the military offensive launched that same day on the Gaza Strip. Loop. The pact is initially contemplated for four days.

A spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry, Majed al Ansari, explained this first calendar in statements to the media, which comes after the doubts that have arisen in recent hours due to the delay in the start of the process. Hamas initially said the pause would begin this Thursday, but Israeli authorities ended up postponing the start to Friday.

Al Ansari has avoided clarifying, for “security reasons”, the route through which the hostages will leave, although as of today the only open crossing is through Rafah, on the border with Egypt. “Our main objective is their safety,” said the spokesperson, who did confirm that in addition to the parties directly involved there will be collaboration from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), according to the Al Jazeera network.

Al Ansari has clarified that, in these first releases, “purely humanitarian” criteria have been prioritized, which means concentrating on getting women and children to safety “as soon as possible.” Israel would also focus the first releases of Palestinian prisoners on these groups, which will initially amount to 150 – three prisoners for each hostage.

Regarding the possible increase in the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the Qatari spokesperson stressed that this issue is “an integral part” of the agreement. In this sense, he has warned that the needs are “very great” in the Strip, where 1.7 million people have had to leave their homes.