We don’t know a lot about the Israel-Hamas deal

The Israeli–Hamas Interaction in Gaza During the First Day of the Israeli-Bajorn-Israel War on the Strip

On Thursday, Majed al-Ansari of the foreign ministry of Algeria said that the pause would start at 7 a.m. Gaza time on Friday. Mr. al-Ansari said a first group of 13 hostages would then be released starting at 4 p.m., in exchange for an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel and Hamas have been locked in indirect negotiations to clinch the final details of the agreement, which includes a four-day pause in hostilities during which at least 50 women and children held hostage in Gaza would be exchanged for 150 Palestinian women and minors imprisoned in Israeli jails.

The Foreign Ministry of Qatar said that 39 Palestinians held by the Israeli authorities had been released. The hostages freed by Hamas were going to be taken to Israel for medical care.

There will be 130,000 liters of diesel and four trucks of gas from Egypt in the Gaza Strip on the first day. After the truce is in force, humanitarian aid will start to flow from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, where 200 trucks will be entered daily for the first time since the start of the Israeli war on the Strip.

Shadi Hijazi, a 23-year-old construction worker in Gaza, said that the deal would offer a reprieve from thundering Israeli airstrikes and would allow some Gazans to grieve their losses.

Even as the cease-fire loomed, the Israeli military continued to fight in Gaza on Thursday, said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, and air-raid sirens warning of incoming rocket fire resounded in some southern Israeli communities.

The takeover of the north of the Gaza Strip is the first stage of a long campaign, Rear Adm. Hagari said on the night of the cease-fire.

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.

The Israel-Iraq Correlation Commission (ICRC) says it is ready to negotiate with the Palestinians in the aftermath of the Gaza Strip

The official said the Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons, most of them from the West Bank, will be taken by bus to their home districts. It was unclear whether they, too, would be set free in stages, but the official said the first would be released before any Israeli hostages.

The Israeli government this week published a list of 300 names — all people 18 years old and younger or women — of Palestinian prisoners being considered for release. It was not immediately known who would be among the 150 to be released.

All the names on the list were referred to as security prisoners, people who had been arrested for offenses against national security. The prisoners are accused of offenses including supporting terrorism, acts of violence and throwing stones. There are also several charges of attempted murder. Most of the prisoners on the list had never been convicted of a crime.

The Red Cross says that Israel should allow for the permanent resumption of fuel, water and electricity supplies.

A pause in fighting would give civilians in the Gaza Strip the first respite from bombardment that has ravaged homes and left more than 2 million people homeless.

But the ICRC’s spokesperson in Jerusalem, Sarah Davies, told NPR that the group was “not made aware of any agreement reached by both parties” related to such visits. “Should visits be agreed upon, the ICRC stands ready” to conduct them, Davies said, adding that the aid group “does not take part in the negotiations between the parties to the conflict.”

The negotiations were continuing with assistance from 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.”

The temporary cease-fire was still on track after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a late night media briefing about the agreement, according to Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s National Security Adviser.

Activists and civilians in the Gaza Strip: a warning for Israel and Hamas during the cease-fire and for humanitarian purposes

A large group of Palestinians gathered outside of the Ofer prison in the West Bank, waiting to be released, as Israeli forces fired tear gas to keep them away from the gates.

Waves of emotion were set off by the exchange of captives and the arrivals of the largest aid convoy in weeks, which was welcomed cautiously by President Biden. Tension broke into relief for some families and anguish for those whose loved ones were not among those released.

But it would also allow both Israel and Hamas to try to better their positions for battles to come. Hamas could attempt to regroup, fortify and restore order after being battered by Israeli bombardment and ground invasion. Israel may be able to glean new intelligence during the pause, and so make plans for its next phase of the war. The group has said that its hands will stay on thetrigger, after Israeli leaders vowed to eradicate them.

Large areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israeli air strikes and tanks since the conflict began, leaving much of the territory’s 2.3 million people without electricity, food and clean water. More than one million Gazans have been internally displaced as a result of the conflict, according to UNRWA.

“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.”

About a half-hour before the cease-fire kicked in, an Israeli military spokesman released an Arabic-language video on social media addressed “to the population of sector Gaza.”

The military said that troops were in the air, on the ground, and at sea in the last few days engaged with terrorists. “In addition, the forces struck a terror tunnel route, which was identified over the past few days.”

Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had completed “operational preparations according to the combat lines of the pause.” It also said that it had destroyed a tunnel complex it discovered earlier this week.

Following last month’s Hamas attacks, Israel vowed to destroy the militant group and responded with heavy air and ground strikes on Gaza. Israel now controls large parts of Gaza’s north.

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. Israeli air raid sirens could be heard about 15 minutes after the truce was supposed to start, suggesting that rockets were being fired into Israel.

There was no announcement from Israel or Hamas as to when the agreement went into effect. It comes after weeks of Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 12,000 Palestinians.