What are the details of the Israel-Hamas hostage deal?
Israel and Palestinian resistance movement Hamas started a four-day truce on Friday morning and the first group of hostages was released later that day.
WHAT ARE THE DETAILS OF THE DEAL?
Under the Israel-Hamas deal, the two sides agreed to a four-day truce so that 50 women and children under the age of 19 taken hostage could be freed in return for 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention.
The 50 hostages, among about 240 taken by Hamas in their Oct. 7 raid on Israel, are expected to be released in batches, probably about a dozen a day, during the four-day ceasefire.
Thirteen Israelis were released on Friday. Ten Thai citizens and a Philippine national – farm workers employed in southern Israel when they were seized – were freed under a separate agreement.
Those involved in the deal for the Israeli hostages have described the break in hostilities as “a humanitarian pause”. The pause will be extended by a day for each additional batch of 10 hostages released, Israel said in a statement.
Hamas said Israel had agreed to halt air traffic over the north of Gaza from 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) until 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) each day of the truce and to halt all air traffic over the south for the entire period. The group said Israel agreed not to attack or arrest anyone in Gaza, and people can move freely along Salah al-Din Street, the main road along which many Palestinians have fled northern Gaza where Israel launched its ground invasion.
Qatar’s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, said that under the deal there would be “no attack whatsoever. No military movements, no expansion, nothing.”
WHEN DID THE DEAL START?
The truce between Israel and Hamas started on Friday morning, with a first batch of hostages released later that day.
A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said the lists of all civilians that would be released from Gaza had been agreed and Qatar hoped to negotiate a subsequent agreement to release additional hostages from Gaza by the fourth day of the truce.