Israel-Hamas truce takes hold ahead of planned hostage release

A tentative four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Friday, setting the ground for the staggered release of 50 hostages held by Hamas and 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

The Qatari-brokered pause in hostilities, which commenced at 7am local time, appeared to be holding, raising hopes that the two sides would later in the day begin exchanging the hostages and prisoners, and that substantial humanitarian aid would be allowed into the besieged enclave.

In a sign that the tenuous agreement was progressing, four tankers of fuel and cooking gas entered Gaza on Friday. This was done “within the framework of the truce and the schedule for the release of the hostages”, the Israeli defence ministry said.

The truce does not signal an end to Israel’s war on Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Instead, Israel has agreed to the lull in hostilities to allow the hostage-for-prisoner swap to proceed uninterrupted, and allow aid into Gaza as part of Hamas’s demands.

The deal has been structured such that both sides must abide by a sequence in events, from Israel allowing aid deliveries, Hamas releasing hostages and Israel in turn releasing prisoners, a person familiar with the situation said. This sequence must be repeated each day for the ceasefire to hold.

A “complete ceasefire” is crucial to completing the humanitarian effort, including the release of hostages, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

While neither side has officially announced the four-day ceasefire to be in place, the Israel Defense Forces dropped leaflets into Gaza warning Palestinians to remain south of the Israeli-ordered evacuation line. “The war has not ended. The humanitarian pause is temporary,” the flyers read.

The swap could result in the return to their families of as many as 50 civilians captured from Israel during Hamas’s October 7 cross-border attack. But it could collapse over various obstacles, including if a smaller militant group, the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, fails to abide by the agreement between its Gazan rival and Israeli foe.

Qatar, which announced the ceasefire on Thursday, said the first 13 hostages would be handed over to Israeli authorities at about 4pm on Friday. The families of the women and children have been informed that their names are on a list for release after 48 days of captivity.

They are expected to be exchanged for 39 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons — some of whom have yet to be tried or convicted — a ratio of roughly three Palestinians for every hostage from Israel.

“The aim is for this deal to end with a lasting truce,” Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, told a press conference on Thursday.

A Hamas official said the Israeli hostages would be handed over to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing into Gaza, and the exchange would be carried out without media coverage.

Israeli officials said the released hostages would first be examined by military doctors before being reunited with their families.

The hostages are believed to be in good health, despite enduring Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza alongside the territory’s 2.3mn residents. The Israeli operation has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 13,300 people, according to Palestinian health officials.

Netanyahu said on Thursday night that Israel would continue the war after the pause was over. “This fight is not about to end at the moment. It will end when it ends,” he added. “But we need to buy time — we are in a war; it will continue.”

Qatar on Thursday dispatched more than 40 tonnes of aid for Gaza, which it said would arrive “as soon as possible”. The UN is facilitating the transfer, and international humanitarian groups are rushing to prepare more.

Israel has tightly restricted deliveries of humanitarian aid into Gaza after ordering a complete siege of the enclave a day after last month’s Hamas attack, which killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Hospitals, sanitation and aid deliveries have nearly collapsed from the lack of fuel.

Israel has said it will extend the pause by one day for every 10 additional hostages released. Israel estimates that at least 240 people are being held hostage, mostly by Hamas.

In the lead-up to the ceasefire, the Israeli army operated at speed to capture more territory inside Gaza City, while air raid sirens rang in Israel near the Gaza border on Friday morning.

Thousands of Palestinians left Rafah on Friday morning to return to Khan Younis and other parts of southern Gaza that had been bombarded in recent days. Residents lined up outside petrol stations, leaving gallon containers to hold their spots in queues.

“We were saved from death, but our loved ones were killed,” said Mohammed al-Shaer, a 32-year-old heading to Khan Younis with his child to see what remained of his home. “I’m sure we’ll be shocked by what we see,” he added.

The truce covers only Gaza, and fighting could continue on other fronts, including Israel’s border with Lebanon, where the Iran-backed militant group Hizbollah exchanged heavy fire with Israel on Thursday. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, called for “an escalation of confrontation with the occupation” in the West Bank and on other fronts.