Agreed ceasefire and release of hostages to begin on Friday
The ceasefire agreed between Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas and the release of hostages is set to begin on Friday, according to information from Qatar. A spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that the ceasefire would come into force on Friday morning. Hamas will then release a first group of 13 women and children in the afternoon.
Hamas confirmed the information on the start of the ceasefire. This will come into force at 07:00 (local time; 06:00 CET) and last for four days, the Essedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed arm of the Islamist Palestinian organization, declared. During the ceasefire, a total of 50 hostages - women as well as children and young people under the age of 19 - are to be released.
The Israeli cabinet approved the agreement with Hamas on Wednesday night. The agreement stipulates that 150 Palestinian women and under-19s will be released from Israeli prisons in return for the release of the 50 hostages.
It was originally expected that the implementation of the agreements between Israel and Hamas would begin on Thursday. However, Israel's security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi then announced that negotiations were continuing and that the release of the hostages would not begin "until Friday".
After the Israeli cabinet approved the agreement with Hamas, Qatar agreed to facilitate the ceasefire and hostage release on Friday. The spokesperson from Qatar's Foreign Ministry announced that the ceasefire would commence at 07:00 (local time; 06:00 CET) and the first group of 13 hostages, which include women and children, would be released in the afternoon. The Essedin al-Qassam Brigades confirmed that the ceasefire would last for four days and in total, 50 hostages will be released.
Source: www.ntv.de
