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Gaza/Jerusalem: Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will start a four-day truce on Friday morning with the first batch of Israeli hostages released later that day, mediators in Qatar said.
The agreement – the first in a brutal, near seven-week-old war – would begin at 7am local time and involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry said.
Ambulances are seen on a road near an Israeli forces tank during an IDF ground operation in the Gaza Strip.Credit: AP
Aid would start flowing into Gaza, Israeli hostages would be freed at 4pm and it was expected that Palestinians would be released from Israeli jails as part of the deal, ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told reporters in Doha.
Hamas – who had been expected to declare a truce with Israel a day earlier only for negotiations to drag on – confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities from its forces would cease.
Israel has received an initial list of hostages to be released from Gaza, planned to take place after a ceasefire with Hamas takes hold on Friday, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Thursday.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after gunmen from Hamas burst across the border fence, killing 1200 people and seizing about 240 hostages on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.
Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of Gaza City, during the ongoing Israeli bombardment.Credit: AP
Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, around 40 per cent of them children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Israel has said the truce could last beyond the initial four days as long as the militants free at least 10 hostages per day. A Palestinian source has said a second wave of releases could see as many as 100 hostages go free by the end of November.
Both sides have said they will go back to fighting once the truce is over.
IDF arrests director of Gaza hospital
The director of Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip was being questioned on Thursday over evidence the Israeli military said showed the facility had been used as a command and control centre for the Islamist movement Hamas.
The military said Dr Muhammad Abu Salamiyah had been in charge of the sprawling complex as Hamas militants built up a network of military infrastructure and stored weapons inside the hospital and its grounds.
“In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity,” it said in a statement.
Shifa Hospital, the biggest medical facility in the Palestinian Territories, has been at the centre of accusations of war crimes on both sides.
While Israel says Hamas has located its operational structures at the site, in contravention of international law, Palestinians have accused Israel of targeting a medical facility where thousands of civilians had sought shelter from air strikes that have killed thousands.
Israeli troops entered the complex earlier this month and uncovered what they said was at least one well-equipped tunnel as well as a quantity of weapons which it said showed how the hospital was used by Hamas.
Hamas and doctors at the hospital have previously denied accusations that the complex was used for military purposes and dismissed the evidence presented by Israeli officials.
The Palestinian health ministry said Abu Salamiyah and a number of doctors were arrested at dawn at a checkpoint on the road linking northern Gaza to the south, where Israel has told Palestinians from the north to move for their own safety as its military operation continues.
The army was still questioning him, army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters on Thursday afternoon. He said Abu Salamiyah was not under indictment and no one was suggesting he was a member of Hamas.
“We took him to ask him a few questions about why under his hospital there was so much terrorist activity above ground and underground,” Hecht said.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kayla said the arrests showed that Israel was flouting international humanitarian law. She said Palestinian authorities had appealed to the United Nations as well as bodies including the Red Cross, asking them to put pressure on Israel to reverse course.
Hamas also issued a statement condemning the arrests of the doctors, who it said had remained in the hospital to facilitate the evacuation of patients and wounded.
“We call on the Red Cross and international organisations to work for their immediate release,” it said.
Reuters
More coverage of the Hamas-Israel conflict
- Hamas had bigger plans on October 7: Intelligence about Hamas’ motivations reveals an intention to strike a blow of historic proportions and provoke an overwhelming Israeli response.
- Escape from chaos: An Australian father faced a heartbreaking dilemma – whether to flee Gaza to his children, or stay with his wife.
- Open letters: Mass resignations, boardroom turmoil and angry donors are some of the ways the Israel-Hamas war is filtering down into Australia’s high-powered arts world.
- Gaza’s youth: One of the cruellest ironies of war is that they are never started by children, yet it is children who suffer the most.
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