Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on a temporary ceasefire and the release of hostages, after weeks of negotiations and brokered by Qatar. The agreement involves the gradual release of hostages in exchange for an end to the bombing and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
In the first phase of the agreement, as previously announced, 50 civilian hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian factions will be released, while Israel will stop bombing Gaza for four days.
For every freed hostage, Israel will release three Palestinians, probably women and children, who are being held in so-called administrative detention. After that, an additional day of truce will be possible for every 10 freed hostages. In the first phase, 150 prisoners, mostly women and children, in Israeli prisons will be released.
Qatar announced that a ceasefire would take place within the next 24 hours.
Hamas said that during the four-day pause, air traffic in southern Gaza will stop completely and stop for six hours a day, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm local time, in northern Gaza.
This is both the first diplomatic success and a break after six weeks in which more than 12, 000 Palestinians, including more than 5,000 children, have been killed.
The agreement also foresees that hundreds of trucks of humanitarian aid will enter Gaza every day,
Palestinians for every Israeli released by Hamas
As Israel’s Channel 12 reports, the hostage release process will involve five stages.
First, Hamas will hand over the hostages to the Red Cross, after which they will be handed over to the Israeli army. The hostages will then be medically checked and then taken to one of five isolated medical centers across Israel to meet their families.
In the fourth phase, medical and military authorities will work together to see if any of the hostages can be questioned.
In the final stage of the mechanism, the hostages will undergo an interview with officials from the security sector.
In the attack on October 7, Hamas captured around 240 people, some of whom are military personnel who are not part of this agreement. Four people have been released so far.
Before the war, Israel held about 5,200 Palestinians in detention, and since October 7 there have been more than 2,900 new arrests. Human rights and watchdog groups believe Israel is holding at least 95 women, 37 journalists and 145 children, Klix.ba reports.
