Gaza ceasefire, hostage release to begin from Friday, says Qatar
According to Qatari officials, a pause in fighting will begin at 7am local time on Friday.
Israel’s full Cabinet has cleared the highly anticipated deal with Hamas that would see a pause in fighting and release of 50 Israeli hostages being held in the Gaza Strip since the brutal October 7 attack.
A statement released by the Israeli government said,”Tonight, the government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 hostages – women and children – will be released over four days, during which a pause in the fighting will be held.”
“The release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause,” it further added.
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However, the statement noted that Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will continue the war after the ceasefire in order to return home all the hostages.
“The government of Israel, the IDF [Israeli military] and the security services will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza,” it added.
According to the deal that was brokered by the Qatari intermediators along with the US, Hamas will release 12-13 hostages per day in exchange for a pause in the fighting.
This will continue for the next four days and will see a release of around 50 hostages.
Hamas will also act on finding around 39 more Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by other militant groups.
According to Israeli media reports, Israel will also return upto 300 Palestinian women and minor imprisoned in its jail.
Also, the ceasefire could further extend for additional days in exchange for 10 more hostage releases per extra day, the report claimed.
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