The ceasefire was scheduled for today, but the Israeli National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, has assured that the release will not take place before Friday. For its part, Qatar, the main mediator of the truce, has said that the entry into force will be announced in “the next few hours.”
The Israeli National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, assured this Thursday that there will be no release of Hamas hostages until Friday. The first truce in a month and a half of the Israeli offensive was scheduled to come into effect this Thursday at 10:00 local time (08:00 in the Basque Country), however, various Israeli sources have denied this.
“The negotiations for the release of our captives are progressing and continue all the time,” Hanegbi said in a statement released by the Office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported by the newspaper. Haaretz.
In turn, he added that the liberation stage provided for in the ceasefire agreement with Hamas will proceed as planned and that the first group of Israeli hostages to be released on Friday.
For his part, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of QatarMajid bin Mohamed al Ansari has said that the entry into force of the truce will be announced in “the next few hours.” According to a statement sent to the Qatari agency QNA, talks between Qatar and Egypt on the details of the truce are progressing “positively.”
In addition, he reported that Qatar, Egypt and the United States continue to work to “guarantee the rapid start of the truce” and ensure the commitment of Hamas and Israel to respect it.
Keys to the Israel-Hamas agreement
The ceasefire, which may be extended a maximum of 10 days, would be a relief for the civilian population of the devastated enclave, where more than 14,500 Gazans have already died – it is estimated that another 6,800 are dead under the rubble or their bodies lying in the streets – due to indiscriminate Israeli bombings; but also for the relatives of the more than 240 hostages that Hamas and other Islamist militias are holding in the Strip.
“We welcome all hostages to return home, but our demand remains unchanged: the immediate release of all captives,” said yesterday the group that brings together the families of the kidnapped, who in recent weeks have accelerated their mobilizations to pressure the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu in favor of a negotiation.
The agreement, to which both the Israeli government and the Hamas leadership gave green lightincludes a first phase in which Hamas will release 50 hostages, all women and children; and once they are back in Israel – where they will arrive from Egypt, since they will leave the Strip through the Rafah crossing – the Israeli authorities will release them. 150 Palestinian prisonersalso women and minors.
The delivery of hostages will be made in batches of about 12 hostages per day, during the four days of the agreed ceasefire, in which the parties undertake to completely cease all fighting throughout the enclave, both on land and in the air.
If the parties comply with the terms, the ceasefire can be extended for a maximum of 10 days, during which Hamas will release 150 hostages, in exchange for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners, that do not have crimes of blood. The Ministry of Justice has already published the list of the 300 prisoners who could be released in the exchange.
However, the agreement for a temporary ceasefire does not mean the end of the war, as both parties have stressed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the fighting will not stop until Hamas’s military capabilities have been “completely destroyed.”
For its part, the group stressed that the truce allows for “relief and the opportunity to heal the wounds of the Strip,” but that it “consolidates the will of the resistance” to continue fighting against the “Zionist enemy.”
The agreement also contemplates the entry to the Strip, including the northern part, of between 100 and 300 trucks with food and medical aidin addition to fuel, essential for the electricity supply and the operation of the hospitals, which have all been out of service in the northern half of the enclave, where Israel is currently focusing its ground offensive.
The Israeli Army is committed to Do not fly over the enclave with drones and airplanes for six hours a day while the truce is in effect to allow Hamas to locate hostages held by other armed groups, such as Islamic Jihad, which also supported the agreement.
The Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip asked all parties to the conflict to take advantage of the truce for the evacuation of the wounded and for humanitarian aid and fuel to reach Gazan hospitals.
For his part, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has considered it “insufficient” to end the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip. The non-governmental organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has also warned that the truce “is not enough” and has advocated for an “urgent and sustained” ceasefire over time. Finally, the head of Political Affairs of the United Nations, Rosemary DiCarlo, has valued the truce, “but said that much more must be done.”
Source: Eitb
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