Friday could be when the cease-fire goes forward
The Gazans’ Last Rejoint: The Israeli-Hamas Interaction at the Tip of the Fourth Day of a Four-Day Interaction
TEL AVIV, Israel — A four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect early Friday. The first exchange of Israeli hostage for Palestinian prisoner is expected when the temporary truce comes to an end.
The cease-fire agreement between the Israeli and Hamas governments, which was announced early Wednesday, has the potential to lead to a respite in fighting, as well as the return of people to their homes. But for the next day and a half, the details of the deal are discussed, underscoring the deep distrust between the two sides.
An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday said hostages turned over by Hamas would be taken to hospitals, and the seriously injured transported by helicopter. The official said those under 12 will be met by their families at the border, and that older hostages will meet their families at hospitals.
There will be an increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza in the deal. Hamas said Thursday that 200 trucks carrying relief supplies and four fuel trucks would enter the territory each day during the four-day pause. The Israeli officials did not immediately make a comment.
The project would allow some Gazans to grieve their losses, and it would offer a reprieve from thundering Israeli airstrikes, according to the young construction worker.
The prisoner problem: the first stage of a long campaign in Gaza, Israel’s army and the spokesman for the Defense Ministry
After the cease-fire took effect, the Israeli military continued to fight in Gaza, Hecht said.
The chief spokesman for the Israeli military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said on Thursday night, the eve of the cease-fire, that “the takeover of the north of the Gaza Strip is only the first stage in a long campaign.”
Israel said its warplanes would not fly over southern Gaza for the duration of the cease-fire, and would not fly over the northern part of the territory for six hours each day.
Most Palestinians from the West Bank will be taken by bus to their home districts after they are released from Israeli prisons. The official said that the first ones would be released before any Israeli hostages, but it was unclear if they would be set free in stages.
The list of people under the age of 18 being considered for release was published by the Israeli government. It was not known who would be included in the 150 to be released.
All the names on the list were described as “security prisoners,” or people who had been arrested in connection with offenses against national security. The prisoners are charged with offenses that include support of terrorism, violence and throwing stones. There are also several charges of attempted murder. The prisoners on the list had not been convicted of the charges.
The United Nations Commission on Humanitarian Affairs (UNHCR) acknowledged the cease-fire agreement in the early morning of the Fourth Day of the Israeli War Between Israel and Egypt
The Red Cross said that Israel should allow the permanent resume of fuel, water, and electricity supplies.
In a statement issued later, the ICRC said it “welcomes any respite from the fighting and bombardment in Gaza,” adding that “Everything possible must be done to scale humanitarian aid during this pause.”
The group was not made aware of any agreement reached by both parties when they visited Jerusalem, according to the ICRC’s Sarah Davies. The aid group does not take part in the negotiations between the warring parties, Davies said, adding that the ICRC stands ready to conduct them.
The negotiations are continuing with the help of both Egypt and the U.S., according to the ministry.
The reason for the delay was not immediately clear, but Israel’s Channel 12 quoted an unnamed Israeli political official as saying “The delay isn’t substantive, but technical.”
Around midnight Wednesday and just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a televised, late-evening media briefing where he discussed the agreement, Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said the temporary cease-fire was still on track “according to the original agreement,” but that it wouldn’t occur before Friday.
In the hours leading up to the truce, Israel’s military “intensified strikes” with intense ground battles against Hamas, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza is a problem for the U.N. because they have 200 patients and medical staff trying to leave. The U.N. says Israeli tanks surrounded the hospital and Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported the hospital was struck again by Israeli fire.
“The cease-fire for humanitarian purposes is temporary,” the spokesman said, insisting that northern Gaza, where the fighting has been concentrated, “is a dangerous war zone and it is forbidden to move around.”
An Arabic language video on social media was released by the Israeli military a half-hour before the cease-fire went into effect.
“Over the last day and night, IDF troops on the ground, in the air, and at sea continued to strike terror targets, operate in different areas to locate suspicious structures and engage with terrorists,” the military’s statement said. Over the last few days, the forces struck a terror tunnel route.
In the statement, the Israel Defense Force says that it had destroyed the tunnel that it had identified under the hospital in northern Gaza.
Israel responded with strikes on the Gaza Strip after last month’s Hamas attacks. Israel now controls a large portion of the north of Gaza.
With the anticipated pause in the fighting, crowds of Palestinians were seen pouring into the streets in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. But Palestinian media reported several Israeli strikes in northern Gaza in the hours leading up to the cease-fire. After the truce began, Israel’s army reported air raid sirens on the Gaza border, which could mean rockets were fired into Israel.
The agreement officially went into effect at 7 a.m. local time, but there was no official announcement from either Israel or Hamas to signal its start. It comes after weeks of Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 12,000 Palestinians.
