According to mediator Qatar, the announced ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas will come into effect on Friday at 7 a.m. local time (6 a.m. CET). Majid al-Ansari, spokesman for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this in Doha on Thursday. Meanwhile, fighting in the Gaza War continued. Palestinian media reported at least fifteen deaths in Israeli airstrikes on the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The deal, aimed at facilitating aid deliveries given the precarious situation of the civilian population in the densely populated Gaza Strip, was brokered by Qatar with the support of Egypt and the US and announced on Wednesday. It provides for a four-day ceasefire during which 50 women and children will be released, who were among some 240 hostages kidnapped in the Gaza Strip during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.
Prisoners in exchange for hostages
The hostages also include numerous people with foreign citizenship. In return, Israel must release 150 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says the ceasefire can be extended as long as Gaza extremists release at least 10 hostages a day. Palestinian circles said that up to 100 hostages could be released in a second round by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the fighting continued. Attacks were also reported in other parts of the Gaza Strip, such as Jabalia near Gaza City in the north and Nuseirat further south. Israel said its forces had attacked more than 300 Hamas targets from the air in the past day. In Israel there was another air raid near the border warning of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
Head of Al-Shifa Hospital arrested
The head of Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip was arrested by Israeli soldiers on Thursday, according to a doctor at the clinic. “Doctor Muhammad Abu Salmiya was arrested along with a number of other senior doctors,” said doctor and department head Khalid Abu Samra. The Israeli army has been on the grounds of Al-Shifa hospital for about a week, where it suspects there is an operations center for the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas. On Sunday, the army said it had found a 55-metre-long tunnel, ten meters deep beneath the clinic, and a weapons cache.
More patients were evacuated from the controversial Shifa hospital, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. The aid agency said late Wednesday that 14 ambulances and two UN buses had taken 190 injured and sick people, their companions and some medical staff to hospitals in Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. “Many other injured people and their companions, along with medical staff, are still in hospital.”
Israel reiterated that it would stick to its goal of destroying Hamas after the ceasefire. “We will not end the war. We will continue until we achieve victory,” Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told commanders in a video released by the military on Thursday. Hamas had also announced that it would continue fighting against Israel.
Source: Krone

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