A temporary truce between Israel and Hamas will begin on Friday followed hours later by the release of civilian hostages, Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.
The cease-fire will start at 7 a.m. local time on Friday, and civilian hostages will be released at 4 p.m. local time, the Qatari agency said Thursday. Majed Al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign minister, said the list of hostages to be released has been handed to the Israeli Intelligence Services.
The deal, brokered by the United States along with Qatar and Egypt, includes a four-day pause in fighting, the release of 50 hostages taken by Hamas and 150 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Both sides agreed to release women and children. Israel also had agreed to extend the pause in fighting for one day for every 10 additional hostages Hamas releases.
Officials originally said the deal would begin Thursday but announced the delay hours before the highly anticipated reprieve that would come more than six weeks into the captivity of an estimated 240 hostages and heavy bombardments on the besieged Gaza Strip. Authorities did not say why the truce was postponed.
Israel authorities said 1,200 people have been killed since the conflict began, with most of those deaths occurring in the Oct. 7 incursion by Hamas. More than 13,300 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. As of Nov. 11, the ministry said it had lost the ability to count the dead because of the collapse of large parts of the health system, but the agency said the toll has risen sharply since then. Some 2,700 people are missing and believed to be buried under rubble.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces have killed 201 Palestinians since Oct. 7, including 52 children, which is more than in any year since 2005, Human Rights Watch said, citing United Nations data. This year, Palestinians have killed 24 Israeli civilians and four security force members as of Nov. 16, the highest number in more than 15 years.
Developments:
∎ The Israeli military on Thursday said it had struck more than 300 targets in Gaza over the past day, including military command centers, underground tunnels, and missile launch posts used by Hamas.
∎ At least 53 journalists and media workers have been killed in the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Others have faced harassment, detainment, communication blackouts and other obstructions to reporting, the group said.
∎ The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said this was the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948.
Hamas gives Israel preliminary list of hostages to be freed
Israel has received a preliminary list of hostages who will be freed by Hamas as part of a temporary cease-fire expected to begin Friday morning, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
Officials are checking the details of the people named on the list and are in contact with their families. Netanyahu's office has not released their identities or profiles.
Earlier, Qatar’s foreign minister, Majed Al-Ansari, said 13 women and children will be released. That figure has not been confirmed by Israel, which has said that at least 10 hostages will be freed.
-Kim Hjelmgaard
Who are the hostages and prisoners awaiting release?
Three Americans were among the hostages set for release including 3-year-old Avigail Idan, whose parents were killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and two women, according to a senior Biden administration official.
Only four hostages, including two Americans, have been released so far. Israeli forces said they rescued a fifth hostage, a female soldier.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal also included a provision for the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the hostages in captivity.
One of the earliest proposals was put forward on Oct. 12, five days after the Hamas attack, and it called for releasing all women and children held by Hamas and other Palestinian militants in Gaza, in return for freeing all Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, according to Egyptian officials. The Israelis rejected that initial proposal, but it “opened the door for more talks,” one of the officials said.
Israel’s Justice Ministry published a list of 300 Palestinians eligible for release from prison, mainly teenagers arrested over the past year for relatively minor offenses such as throwing rocks. The youngest detainee on the list is 14, and it also includes around 40 women. The detainees are to be released to their homes in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.
Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner rights group, said there are 7,000 "political prisoners" in Israel. There are 2,070 "administrative detainees," which are people held indefinitely without charges. At least 200 of the people in prison are children and 62 are women, according to the organization.
Director of Al Shifa Hospital detained by Israeli forces
The Israeli military has detained Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al Shifa hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, after a World Health Organization convoy carrying hospital evacuees was stopped.
Salmiya will be questioned about "evidence that the Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control center," according to a statement from the Israeli military.
Officials in Israel and the U.S. have said the medical complex harbored a Hamas command center and a vast network of tunnels. Hamas and hospital officials have denied this, saying Israel is using the allegations to justify its expanding ground operations.
In the days since troops entered the hospital just over a week ago – trapping patients, including newborn babies and citizens seeking refuge – Israel's military has not provided conclusive evidence of a command or control center.
Contributing: Associated Press
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