A four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas — the primary prolonged break in nearly seven weeks of struggle — will start on Thursday morning, officers on either side stated, however a prime Israeli official stated the alternate of prisoners for hostages is not going to start earlier than Friday.
The cease-fire was anticipated to start at 10 a.m. native time, in line with Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas official who was interviewed by Al Jazeera, and an Israeli official who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate safety issues.
However late on Wednesday, Tzachi Hanegbi, the nationwide safety adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, quashed widespread hypothesis that Thursday would additionally convey the primary launch of hostages seized by Hamas.
Negotiations “on the discharge of our hostages are advancing and persevering with always,” Mr. Hanegbi stated in a press release. “The beginning of the discharge will happen in line with the unique settlement between the 2 sides, and never earlier than Friday.”
The 2 sides introduced Wednesday morning — Tuesday night in the US — that they’d agreed to the alternate and a pause in combating, however spent a lot of the day hammering out tough particulars about timing and strategies. In an environment of deep mutual distrust, with a historical past of collapsed truces and with out an middleman making an attempt to maintain peace on the bottom, Palestinians and Israelis alike anxious that the deal may but fall by means of.
The deal requires the discharge of at the very least 150 Palestinian ladies and youngsters jailed by Israel in alternate for at the very least 50 ladies and minors taken hostage in the course of the Hamas assault in Israel on Oct. 7. Israel stated its warplanes wouldn’t fly over southern Gaza in the course of the cease-fire, and wouldn’t fly over the northern a part of the territory for six hours every day.
However as if to spotlight that there was no lull within the struggle but, the Israeli army stated on Wednesday that it “continued to combat within the Gaza Strip,” whereas Hamas stated it had agreed to a truce, however “our palms will stay on the set off.”
The Israeli official who spoke on situation of anonymity stated hostages turned over by Hamas could be taken to hospitals, the critically injured by helicopter. These underneath 12 might be met on the border by their households, the official stated, whereas older ones will meet their households at hospitals, the place they are going to be debriefed by safety providers.
The Israeli authorities has stated that the hostages could be freed in 4 teams in the course of the truce, every with at the very least 10 folks. Israeli information media reported that the nation’s spy service, Mossad, had the names of these set to be launched within the first group, however wouldn’t notify their households till they’d been recovered.
The Palestinians to be launched from Israeli prisons, most of them from the West Financial institution, might be taken by bus to their residence districts. It was unclear whether or not they, too, could be let out in levels, however the official stated the primary could be launched earlier than any Israeli hostages.
Households hoping their family members may be amongst these let out endured an agonizing watch for any scrap of knowledge, some daring to hope it might be excellent news.
“I’m feeling like yesterday and the day earlier than, solely worse,” stated Yael Engel Lichi, whose teenage nephew, Ofir Engel, was one of many Israelis seized within the Hamas raid and brought to Gaza, which Hamas controls. “We don’t know something,” she added. “No official has been in contact to inform us something.”
Throughout the divide, three youngsters from the Salaymeh household of East Jerusalem, arrested in July and charged with throwing rocks at Israelis, are on a listing of 300 Palestinians whom Israel says it’s contemplating for launch. Israel has prohibited contact with detainees since Oct. 7.
“We don’t know something about our son,” stated Nawaf Salaymeh, the daddy of one of many youths, Ahmad, and uncle of the opposite two, Moataz and Mohammad. “Was he tortured or transferred to a different jail or put in solitary confinement? Did he actually have a mattress to sleep on, a blanket to maintain him heat, or meals?”
The cease-fire was negotiated by means of intermediaries, together with Qatar, Egypt and the US. The Biden administration has pressed Israel, privately and publicly, to permit for extra lulls within the combating and to train restraint in its army marketing campaign to let extra Palestinian civilians get to relative security and to permit extra help to achieve them.
The Hamas assault on Israel killed about 1,200 folks, in line with the Israeli authorities, whereas the well being ministry in Gaza says the next Israeli bombing and invasion have killed greater than 12,000 folks.
Most of Gaza’s estimated 2.3 million folks have been displaced from their properties, and a lot of the inhabitants within the north, the place the combating has been concentrated, has evacuated to the south, as directed by Israel. Israeli officers stated they’d not be allowed to return north in the course of the cease-fire.
Many Gazans live in squalid situations, with shortages of meals, water and gas, and medical care is scarce for the rising variety of injured and sick. President Biden stated the cease-fire would enable extra humanitarian help to enter Gaza, which has been underneath an Israeli and Egyptian blockade.
Gazans welcomed the prospect of a lull within the combating that has devastated a lot of their territory. However some stated it mattered little if they may not return residence or acquire wanted medical care, and others had been all too conscious that it might be solely a brief truce in a struggle that Israeli leaders vow will wipe out Hamas.
“This deal shouldn’t be a truce; it’s resting time for the troopers,” stated Firas al-Derby, 17, who was reached by cellphone at a crowded faculty turned shelter in southern Gaza the place his household was staying.
The younger man stated that most cancers therapy for his mom, Hanan, halted final month when the hospital she was going to close down.
“You suppose my mother could be comfortable over a brief cease-fire?” he requested. “The one factor that may make her comfortable now’s to have the ability to proceed her most cancers therapy.”
Late Wednesday, Israel’s Supreme Court docket rejected a petition to dam the cease-fire deal.
Hamas and Israel nonetheless disagree on what number of captives are held in Gaza — Israel has put the quantity round 240 — making it laborious to work out who precisely might be launched, in line with 4 Israeli officers. And precisely how and by what route hostages could be transferred to Israel had been nonetheless being negotiated on Wednesday, in line with a fifth Israeli official. The officers spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate safety issues.
Patrick Kingsley and Hiba Yazbek reported from Jerusalem, and Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv. Reporting was contributed by Nadav Gavrielov, Abu Bakr Bashir, Isabel Kershner, Adam Sella, Gabby Sobelman, Karen Zraick, Josh Holder, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Aaron Boxerman, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Shashank Bengali.
