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Qatar’s foreign ministry has said a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas would take effect on Friday, after the long-awaited agreement was delayed by a day.
The ceasefire will begin at 7am local time on Friday, and the first tranche of hostages, made up of 13 women and children, would be released at 4pm local time, the foreign ministry said.
The Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed that it had received “a preliminary list of names” of those to be released, and that officials were checking the details and in contact with the hostages’ families.
Israeli and Hamas officials said on Wednesday that a deal had been struck under which Hamas would free 50 hostages held in Gaza, in exchange for a four-day truce and the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
The deal had been expected to take effect on Thursday morning. But in a brief statement late on Wednesday, the head of the National Security Council Tzachi Hanegbi said “the start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday”.
A person briefed on the process said it had taken longer than expected to gather some of the information, including on hostages and the Palestinian prisoners that Israel was set to release.
Despite the prospect of a deal, fighting continued on Thursday, with the Israeli military saying it was striking targets in Jabalia in northern Gaza, and militants firing rockets at Israel from the strip. Israeli forces also traded fire with militants on the northern border with Lebanon.
“Until we are given order to hold fire, our operations are continuing,” said Richard Hecht, a spokesman for the Israeli military. “Operations against Hamas are continuing in all arenas.”
The four-day truce would be the longest pause in fighting since the war erupted on October 7. Under the terms of the deal, the first 50 of the roughly 240 hostages held in Gaza would be released in groups of at least 10 a day, staggered over four days.
Israel will release three Palestinian prisoners for each hostage freed, and 200 trucks of aid per day will also be allowed into Gaza, where 2.3mn people have been living in dire conditions since Israel severely restricted supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel at the start of the war.
The deal could be extended in a second phase to encompass the release of up to 50 more hostages, and up to 150 more Palestinian prisoners.
However, even if the exchange is completed, Hamas will still hold about 150 prisoners, including Israeli soldiers — the militant group has previously indicated that it hopes to trade them for high-ranking Palestinians, some of them militants, in Israeli prisons.
Speaking at a press conference with UK foreign secretary David Cameron on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that the deal would not end hostilities, and that Israel would continue fighting until it had achieved its aims of destroying Hamas.
“We’ll continue with our war aims, namely to eradicate Hamas, because Hamas has already promised that they will do this again and again and again,” he said.
Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the enclave on October 7, and carried out the deadliest ever attack on Israeli territory, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed almost 13,000 people, including more than 5,300 children, according to Palestinian officials, as well as displacing more than 1.7mn people.
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