First hostages walk free as Israel, Hamas begin four days of shaky truce
Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas are set to start a four-day truce with a first group of 13 Israeli women and child hostages to be released, mediators in Qatar say.
The agreement – the first in a brutal, near seven-week-old war – would begin on Friday at 7am local time (4pm AEDT) and involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.
Some aid would start flowing into Gaza and the first hostages including elderly women would be freed at 4pm, with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in the Qatari capital Doha.
It was expected Palestinians would be released from Israeli jail, he told reporters.”We all hope that this truce will lead to a chance to start a wider work to achieve a permanent truce.”
Hamas – who had been expected to declare a truce with Israel a day earlier on Thursday only for negotiations to drag on – confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities from its forces would cease.
Israel had received an initial list of hostages to be freed from the Gaza Strip and was in touch with families, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement that stopped short of confirming a truce had been agreed.
Israel launched its devastating war in Gaza after gunmen from Hamas burst across the border fence, killing 1200 people and seizing about 240 hostages on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, about 40 per cent of them children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Israel has said the truce could last beyond the initial four days as long as the militants free at least 10 hostages per day.
A Palestinian source has said a second wave of releases could result in as many as 100 hostages being free by the end of November.
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Both sides have said they will go back to fighting once the truce is over.
Qatar said an operations room in Doha would monitor the truce and the release of hostages, and had direct lines of communication with Israel, the Hamas political office in Doha and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Egypt – also involved in mediation – is receiving lists of hostages and prisoners that are expected to be released and called on both sides to respect the agreement, Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s state information service, said in a statement.
“The important thing is that we maintain a very clear line of communication with everybody through the operations room,” Qatar’s Ansari said.
Qatar hopes to negotiate a subsequent agreement to release additional hostages from Gaza by the fourth day of the truce, he added.
