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A tentative four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is set to begin, setting the ground for the staggered release of 50 hostages held by Hamas and 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The Qatari-brokered ceasefire was set to begin at 7am on Friday. If it holds, the sides will begin with the first of four planned days of prisoner exchanges, accompanied by a rush of humanitarian assistance — including much-needed fuel — into the besieged enclave.
The swap could eventually involve the return of as many as 50 civilians captured from Israel during Hamas’s October 7 cross-border attack to their families. But it could collapse over various obstacles, including whether a smaller militant group, the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, abides by the ceasefire agreed between its Gazan rival and Israeli foe.
Qatar, which announced the ceasefire on Thursday, said the first 13 hostages would be handed over to Israeli authorities around 4pm on Friday. The families of the women and children have been informed that their names are on a list for release after 48 days of captivity.
“The aim is for this deal to end with a lasting truce”, Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, said at a press conference on Thursday.
The hostages are believed to be in good health, despite enduring Israel’s punishing bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip alongside the territory’s 2.3mn residents. The Israeli operation has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 13,300 people, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel will continue to fight after the ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday night.
“This fight is not about to end at the moment. It will end when it ends,” he said. “But we need to buy time — we are in a war; it will continue.”
Qatar on Thursday dispatched more than 40 tonnes of aid for Gaza, which it said would arrive “as soon as possible”. The UN is facilitating the transfer of “as much aid as possible,” a senior UN official said, and international humanitarian groups are rushing to prepare more.
Israel has tightly restricted deliveries of humanitarian aid into Gaza after ordering a complete siege of the enclave the day after the Hamas attack last month. Hospitals, sanitation and aid deliveries have nearly collapsed from the lack of fuel.
The increased deliveries are expected to include crucial fuel supplies. Hamas’s military wing said four trucks of fuel and cooking gas per day would be brought in for all areas of the strip. The UN’s Palestinian relief agency has previously said it needs 160,000 litres of fuel per day for basic humanitarian operations in the strip.
Israel has said it would extend the ceasefire by a day for every 10 additional hostages released.
In the occupied West Bank, families of Palestinian prisoners prepared to celebrate being reunited with women and children — some of whom have yet to be tried or convicted — by setting up tents outside their homes.
In the lead-up to the ceasefire, the Israeli army operated at great speed to capture more territory inside Gaza City, while air raid sirens rang out in Israel near the Gaza border on Friday morning.
The truce only covers Gaza, and fighting could continue on other fronts, including Israel’s border with Lebanon, where the Iran-backed militant group Hizbollah exchanged heavy fire with Israel on Thursday.
Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing, called for “an escalation of confrontation with the occupation” in the West Bank and on other fronts.
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