Gaza truce 'officially' begins ahead of first release of hostages
World
A first batch of 13 Hamas hostages, including elderly women, will be released at 4pm local time
(AFP) – A temporary truce in the Israel-Hamas war took effect early Friday, setting the stage for the exchange of dozens of hostages held by militants in Gaza for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
The halt in fighting began at 7 am local time (0500 GMT) and is expected to last at least four days. During the truce, Gaza’s ruling Hamas group pledged to free at least 50 of the about 240 hostages it and other groups took in their deadly October 7 attack on Israel.
A first batch of 13 Hamas hostages, including elderly women, in Gaza will be released at 4pm local time (1400 GMT).
In turn, Israel is to free three Palestinian prisoners for each released hostage. The releases are to take place in stages over the next four days.
But fighting raged on, with local officials saying a hospital in Gaza City was among the targets bombed as the hours counted down to the start of the first break in a brutal, near seven-week-old war. Both sides also signalled the pause would be temporary before fighting resumes.
Earlier, Qatar's foreign ministry said the truce would begin at 7 am local time (0500 GMT) and involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza.
Additional aid would start flowing into Gaza and the first hostages including elderly women would be freed at 4 pm (1400 GMT), with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in the Qatari capital Doha.
