Team News Riveting
Jerusalem, November 24
Even as Gaza truce will kick off Friday morning, first batch of 13 Israeli hostages are likely to walk free by 4 pm (7.30 pm Indian Standard Time).
A spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry said Thursday afternoon that the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would go into effect Friday at 7 am. The first group of 13 Israeli hostages would be freed on Friday at 4 pm, he added.
The Israeli officials have confirmed that it had received an “initial” list of names of abductees likely to go free, and that families of those set to return Friday had been updated. Hamas’s military wing also said a ceasefire would go into effect Friday morning, and last four days.
“In four days, 50 [hostages] will be released,” Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades said, confirming information from Israel that three jailed Palestinian terror convicts would be freed in exchange for every Israeli hostage, totalling 150.
Under the deal, which was mediated by Qatar and the US, Hamas would release 50 Israeli women and children it took hostage on October 7. In exchange for a lull in the fighting during the four days, 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel for terror offenses, all of them women or minors, will be released.
The deal will also enable an influx of fuel and humanitarian supplies to Gaza during the ceasefire of the deadly fighting since Hamas sparked the war nearly seven weeks ago when its terrorists rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, massacring some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 240 hostages.
