Qatar: Ceasefire begins on Friday morning
The hostage deal between Israel and Hamas is in place, but the start of the ceasefire expected for today has been postponed. The timetable has now been set: from Friday morning, the guns are to fall silent. A few hours later, the first of 50 Hamas hostages are expected to be released.
According to information from Qatar, the ceasefire agreed between Israel and the radical Islamic group Hamas and the release of hostages is due to begin tomorrow, Friday. A spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry also announced that Hamas would 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, explained the Essedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed arm of the Islamist Palestinian organization. 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 today, Thursday. However, Israel's security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi then announced that negotiations were continuing and that the release of the hostages would not begin "until Friday".
The war between Israel and Hamas has now been going on for almost seven weeks. On 7 October, hundreds of fighters from Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU, invaded Israel and committed atrocities, mainly against civilians, including many women and children. According to the Israeli government, around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israel began to massively attack targets in the Gaza Strip from the air and on the ground. According to Hamas, which cannot be independently verified, more than 14,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then, including more than 5,800 children.
- Despite the postponement of the ceasefire, Israel and Hamas have negotiated a hostage deal, with the release of 50 Hamas prisoners and 150 Palestinian women and under-19s from Israeli prisons.
- The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by many nations, has resulted in heavy casualties, with around 1,200 deaths in Israel and over 5,800 children killed in the Gaza Strip according to Hamas's claims.
- The chaos and violence in the Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas, have continued to escalate, with both sides accused of committing acts of terrorism against civilians.
Source: www.ntv.de
