“With Hamas nothing is certain and everything can change,” an Israeli Government source tells La Vanguardia. The army insists on the same idea and calls for caution. Everything is ready for the ceasefire in Gaza agreed between Israel and Hamas to finally begin today, and the first 13 hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. But everything was also ready yesterday and, in the end, the truce did not begin and the fighting continued. Israel blames Hamas for demanding new demands that were not in the original agreement; and Hamas blames Israel for the delay due to disagreements in the logistics of exchanging prisoners for hostages.
However, if nothing goes wrong, the ceasefire would begin at 7 a.m. today (one hour less in Spain). After the suspension of fighting, the first of the four hostage deliveries by Hamas would arrive, scheduled for four in the afternoon (local time), when 13 kidnapped people of the nearly 240 held by the Islamist group would be released. and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – about 30 – since the October 7 terrorist attack. These schedules were communicated yesterday by the Government of Qatar, which acts as a mediator in the conflict – with the support of the US – and houses the leaders of the fundamentalist organization in its territory. The Israeli Government confirmed it.
Israel also reported that it has in its possession the list – delivered by Qatar in Doha to the head of Mossad – with the names of the 50 hostages who will be freed by Hamas in the four days that the truce is expected to last at least. The names will not be made public until those released are safe in Israeli territory.
The agreement reached on Tuesday indicates that Hamas will release 10 to 13 hostages each day of the four days that the truce must last, which may be extended to ten days if the fundamentalist organization continues handing over kidnapped people. The first 50 will be women and children, but it is not yet known if that group includes all minors, about 40.
The first 13 hostages would be handed over today to the Red Cross – whose president, Mirjana Spolijaric, met on Monday in Qatar with the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh – and would leave Gaza towards Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, a city that yesterday was bombed by Israel. “There will be 13 women and children, and if there are captives from the same family they will be released all together within this first batch,” said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al Ansari yesterday.
At the same time, Israel should release 150 Palestinian prisoners from a list of 300 – women and adolescents without blood crimes – that Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu's government has already sent to the Supreme Court. Today the first 39 prisoners would be released and the rest would be gradually released during the four days of the truce. Likewise, if the ceasefire continued, Israel would continue to release prisoners as Hamas released more hostages.
Trucks with humanitarian aid in the form of food, fuel and medical and logistical materials were waiting last night on the Egyptian side of Rafah for the start of the ceasefire. The agreement between Israel and Hamas also involves the entry of humanitarian aid, as well as allowing the hostages still held by the Islamist group to be visited and cared for by Red Cross personnel.
Although Qatar has already stated that it is still trying to achieve a definitive ceasefire, Israel has reiterated that the war will not stop until Hamas is eliminated from Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said yesterday that “this respite will be brief.” The truce will come to the strip when Israel has already killed more than 14,100 Palestinians, including more than 5,000 minors, since it began its invasion a little over a month ago.
As the truce did not begin yesterday, the fighting and bombing continued throughout the strip. Hamas reported that some 30 Gazans were killed yesterday in the Israeli attack on a United Nations school in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
Meanwhile, troops yesterday detained the director of the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Mohamed Abu Salmeya, to be interrogated for his alleged collaboration with the “terrorist activities” that Hamas would have carried out in the health center, as claimed by the army. According to a military spokesman, Abu Salmeya was “transferred for interrogation by the internal intelligence service (Shin Bet) based on evidence showing that the Al Shifa hospital, under his direction, served as a Hamas command and control center.” ”.
And meanwhile, in the north, there was no truce either although Hizbullah had hinted that it would join the ceasefire. Yesterday, Lebanon's Shiite guerrillas launched fifty projectiles into northern Israel, the largest attack since the start of the conflict on October 7.
