Israel and Hamas to begin ceasefire and release hostages today

However, the international community took the news with caution, as fighting continued. Local officials said a hospital in Gaza City was among the targets bombed in the last minute before the ceasefire began.

Israeli tanks move through the devastated landscape in Gaza. Photo: Reuters

The Qatari Foreign Ministry said the ceasefire would begin at 7 a.m. Friday local time (12:00 Friday Vietnam time) and include a comprehensive ceasefire in northern and southern Gaza.

Additional aid will begin flowing into Gaza and the first hostages, including elderly women, will be freed at 4 p.m. local time, with the total number of hostages set to rise to 50 in four days, ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in the Qatari capital Doha.

He added to reporters that Palestinian prisoners were expected to be released from Israeli jails. "We all hope that this ceasefire will lead to the opportunity to begin the broader work to achieve a lasting ceasefire," he said.

US President Joe Biden, who is on Thanksgiving vacation in Nantucket, Massachusetts, said he was confident that a 3-year-old American girl would be among the first to be released. A US State Department official called the ceasefire a “moment of hope”.

Hamas confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities from its forces would be halted. But Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida later referred to the “temporary truce” in a message calling for “intensified confrontation with Israel on all fronts of resistance,” including the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has increased since the Gaza war began.

Israel said its troops would stay behind the ceasefire line inside Gaza. “These will be complex and uncertain days… Even during this process there can be changes,” said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari.

“Taking control of northern Gaza is the first step in a long war and we are preparing for the next stages,” he added. The Israeli prime minister’s office said it had received a list of the first freed hostages and was in contact with their families.

Bui Huy (according to Reuters, CNN, AP)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/israel-va-hamas-bat-dau-lenh-ngung-ban-va-tha-con-tin-vao-hom-nay-24-11-post273755.html