Temporary Gaza Truce To Start Friday Morning, With First Group Of 13 Hostages Expected Freed At 4PM
The Israel-Hamas temporary truce was initially expected to begin Thursday, but more details were hammered out overnight, after Mossad director David Barnea traveled to Doha to negotiate final details. This has delayed the start of the deal, and the planned release of initial hostages till Friday.
The temporary truce is now expected to take effect starting Friday at 7am (local), with the first group of 13 Israeli hostages to be released Friday at 4pm, according to a statement by Qatar's foreign ministry.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said it has received a list of names expected to be freed in the first release of captives. "The relevant officials are checking the details of the list and are currently in contact with all families," a statement said.
The Hamas side too has confirmed that "In four days, 50 [hostages] will be released." And in return three jailed Palestinian terror convicts will go free for each Israeli hostage, totally 150 Palestinians freed by the end of it.
As for the pause in fighting, there's been contradictory information to emerge concerning when precisely the temporary ceasefire will take place. It was previously reported that the stoppage in fighting would only occur after the first round of hostages go free.
According to a summary of some of the new details of the deal in Al Jazeera:
- Four-day truce to begin at 7am local time in Gaza
- Qatar expects aid to go into Gaza as soon as possible from Rafah crossing
- First batch of captives held in Gaza – 13 women and children – to be released at approximately 4pm local time.
- Palestinian prisoners are also meant to be released tomorrow.
- Meetings took place in a positive environment
#BREAKING: Qatar foreign ministry on Gaza humanitarian pause deal:
— TRT World (@trtworld) November 23, 2023
- Truce to start at 07 AM local time on November 24
- Lists of civilians to be released from Gaza received
- Humanitarian aid will start flowing into Gaza as soon as truce begins pic.twitter.com/t0SGXvggb2
If this four-day pause proves successful, more hostage releases could be pending. Qatar has issued the following statement on this prospect:
"What we have felt is that they are committed to this highly. Our aim is to reach this agreement and to pave the way for more pauses that can put an end to this war that everyone is suffering from. Hopefully, the end will be very soon and we need to build this and that in order to reach a lasting permanent ceasefire."
Israel is still vowing to eradicate Hamas, thus a continuation in fighting at some near-term point is almost assured.
"The war continues," Israeli prime minister said Wednesday in Tel Aviv. "We continue until we have achieved complete victory … Eliminating Hamas, liberating our captives and making sure that post-Hamas there will be no threat to Israel."
Tomorrow at 07:00 am local time, the ceasefire/truce is expected to begin. It is also likely to see an intensive escalation of military activities on all fronts until the last minute in #Gaza, #Lebanon, #Yemen and #Iraq.
— Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 (@ejmalrai) November 23, 2023
Meanwhile, a new report in Axios has been issued Thursday which says the Biden administration helped shape this new truce and hostage release deal. "The White House — under increasing pressure to push for a pause in Israel's attacks on Gaza — realized that the only realistic path to such a pause would be a deal for the release of a large number of hostages, U.S. officials say," according to the report. Yet the administration has publicly and consistently rejected calls for ceasefire.