The agreed ceasefire in the Gaza war is scheduled to begin this Friday. The fighting continued until the end – and will continue even after the ceasefire that lasted for days. The overview.
Doha/Gaza/Tel Aviv – With the agreed ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, a new phase in the Gaza war is set to begin on Friday morning. According to Qatar, which is mediating in the conflict, it is scheduled to begin at 7:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. CET). Hamas’s military wing confirmed the planned start of the ceasefire on Friday morning and its planned duration of four days. Before that, however, the fighting continued. In the morning, the alarm sirens wailed again in the border area between Israel and Gaza.
The attacks by the Israeli army could be intensified until the ceasefire, especially in the contested north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht announced on Thursday. The operation will continue until the army is ordered by the Israeli government to stop fighting. The UN Emergency Relief Office also reported on Friday morning that Israel had intensified attacks from the air, on the ground and at sea as of the afternoon of the previous day.
Release of the hostages
The expected ceasefire is also expected to begin the exchange of Hamas hostages kidnapped from Israel for Palestinian prisoners who are in Israeli prisons. The ceasefire is also intended to make larger, urgently needed aid deliveries possible to the Gaza Strip. The first 13 hostages are expected to be released at 4:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. CET), a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. These are children and women who should be handed over to the Red Cross.
During this time, all sides would stop their military activities, announced a spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, which forms the armed wing of the Islamist organization Hamas. It is possible to extend the ceasefire to ten days. According to the Israeli military, after the intensive fighting has temporarily ended, there will continue to be many operations in the Gaza Strip until there is no longer a military threat from there. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said taking control of the northern Gaza Strip was the first stage in a long war. During the ceasefire, the military is focusing on planning the next phases of the fight.
Number of deaths in the Gaza Strip
According to Hamas, the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to almost 15,000 since the war began almost seven weeks ago. More than 36,000 people were injured, the government press office of the Islamists in Gaza said on Thursday evening. The majority of them are children, young people and women. Thousands of people are still missing. The numbers cannot currently be independently verified.
The latest Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, which terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups committed on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. On the Israeli side, more than 1,200 people were killed, including at least 850 civilians. Around 240 hostages were taken to Gaza, including several Germans.
According to Hamas, three Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli prisons for every hostage kidnapped. A total of 50 hostages are expected to be released within four days. These are women and young people under the age of 19. Overall, the agreement reached between both parties to the conflict provides for an exchange of up to 100 hostages from Israel for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners.
Meanwhile, according to Palestinian sources, a 12-year-old was killed in a clash with the Israeli army in the West Bank. The health ministry in Ramallah said the boy was shot in the chest on Thursday evening. The Israeli army carried out a raid in the town of Beita, south of Nablus. The child was initially taken to hospital and later died there as a result of his serious injuries, reported the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
What will be important on Friday
The ceasefire is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. German time. The first Israeli hostages are expected to be released at 3 p.m. The ceasefire is intended to bring larger aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. dpa
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