The release of Hamas hostages has been postponed until November 24, 2023, Israel says

Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi assured this on Thursday There will be no release of Hamas hostages until Friday. The first ceasefire in a month and a half of the Israeli offensive was due to come into effect next Thursday at 10 a.m. local time (8 a.m. in the Basque Country), but several Israeli sources have denied this.

“Negotiations on the release of our prisoners are progressing and continuing,” Hanegbi said in a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reported by the newspaper. Haaretz.

In turn, he added that the liberation phase provided for in the ceasefire agreement with Hamas will proceed as planned and that the first A group of Israeli hostages will be released on Friday.

For his part, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said QatarMajid bin Mohamed al Ansari has said the entry into force of the ceasefire would be announced “in the coming hours.” According to a statement to the Qatari agency QNA, talks between Qatar and Egypt on the details of the ceasefire are progressing ‘positively’.

In addition, he reported that Qatar, Egypt and the United States remain committed to “guaranteeing the early start of the ceasefire” and ensuring that Hamas and Israel commit to respecting it.

Keys to the Israel-Hamas Agreement

The ceasefire, which may be extended maximum 10 dayswould come as a relief to the civilian population of the devastated enclave, where more than 14,500 Gazans have already died – another 6,800 are estimated to be dead under the rubble or their bodies littering the streets – as a result of indiscriminate Israeli bombing ; but also for the relatives of the more than 240 hostages held by Hamas and other Islamic militias in the Gaza Strip.

“We welcome all hostages to return home, but our demand remains unchanged: the immediate release of all prisoners,” said yesterday the group uniting the families of the kidnapped, who have accelerated their mobilizations in recent weeks to exert pressure to practice on the reign of Benjamin. Netanyahu is in favor of negotiation.

The agreement, which both the Israeli government and the Hamas leadership have agreed to green lightincludes a first phase in which Hamas will be released 50 hostages, all women and children; and once they return to Israel – where they will arrive from Egypt, as they will leave the Strip through the Rafah crossing – the Israeli authorities will release them. 150 Palestinian prisonersalso women and minors.

The delivery of the hostages will take place in batches of about 12 hostages per day, during the four days of the agreed ceasefire, during which the parties commit to a complete cessation of all fighting in the enclave, both on land and in the air.

If the parties adhere to the terms, the ceasefire can be extended for up to ten days, during which Hamas 150 hostages, in exchange for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners, which have no blood crimes. The Justice Ministry has already published the list of the 300 prisoners who could be released in the exchange.

However, the agreement for a temporary ceasefire does not mean the end of the war, as both sides have emphasized. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that the fighting will not stop until Hamas’s military capabilities are “completely destroyed.”

For its part, the group stressed that the ceasefire “provides assistance and the opportunity to heal the wounds of the Gaza Strip,” but that it “consolidates the will of the resistance” to continue fighting against the “Zionist enemy.”

The agreement also provides access to the Strip, including the northern part between 100 and 300 trucks with food and medical aidin addition to fuel, essential for electricity supply and the operation of hospitals, all of which have been out of service in the northern half of the enclave, where Israel is currently focusing its ground offensive.

The Israeli army is prepared to do this Do not fly drones and aircraft over the enclave for six hours a day while the ceasefire is in effect so Hamas can locate hostages held by other armed groups, such as Islamic Jihad, which also supported the deal.

The Gaza Strip Ministry of Health has asked all parties to the conflict to take advantage of the ceasefire to evacuate the injured and for humanitarian aid and fuel to reach hospitals in Gaza.

For his part, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, deemed it “insufficient” to end the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip. The non-governmental organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has also warned that the ceasefire is “not enough” and has called for an “urgent and lasting” ceasefire. Finally, the United Nations Head of Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, appreciated the ceasefire, “but said much more needs to be done.”