The first truce between Israel and Hamas came into force at 7 am (local time, 2 am Brasília time), after more than a month and a half of war, under an agreement that provides for the release of 50 hostages in exchange for the delivery of 150 Palestinian prisoners.
The ceasefire, which will last four days and could be extended to ten if Hamas hands over more kidnapped people, will also serve to allow humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.
After a night during which Israel continued its incessant attacks against the Gaza Strip and Hamas launched missiles at two of the evacuated kibbutz near Gaza, the period in which the parties agreed to temporarily stop hostilities finally came into force.
Today, the first 13 Israeli hostages of the 240 held by the Palestinian Islamic group, all of them women and children, are expected to be released at 4pm (11am Brasília time), as announced by the government of Qatar, one of the mediators of the truce.
“The criteria for prioritizing the hostages was purely humanitarian and we focused on getting women and children out of harm’s way as quickly as possible,” said Majed al Ansari, a Qatari spokesman, who said he was confident in compliance with the truce after praising “the positivism and commitment” on both sides.
In turn, the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, celebrated this “humanitarian truce” that will allow the “exchange of prisoners”.
“For every Zionist prisoner, three Palestinian prisoners will be released, including women and children”, they highlighted.
Hamas also confirmed that the agreement includes the daily entry of 200 trucks with humanitarian aid, food and medicine to be distributed throughout the Strip, including the north, as well as the daily distribution of four trucks with fuel, vital for supplying electricity to the enclave.
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