5 members of a pro-Iranian group were killed by American strikes

The Israeli government and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) agreed today (Wednesday) to a truce for a period of four days, to allow the release of 50 detainees in Gaza, in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, and the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged Strip.

Officials from Qatar, which is mediating the negotiations, the United States, Israel and Hamas, have been saying for days that an agreement is imminent.

Hamas is believed to be holding more than 200 people brought to Gaza when its fighters infiltrated Israel on October 7 and launched an attack that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli statistics.

A statement released by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu states that 50 women and children will be released over 4 days, during which the fighting will end.

He added that for every 10 additional prisoners released, the truce will be extended for another day, without mentioning the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

The statement, released after hours of deliberations closed to the press, said: “The Israeli government is committed to returning all hostages to their homeland. Tonight I approved the proposed agreement as the first step towards achieving this objective.”

Hamas said the deal includes the release of the 50 detainees in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children in Israeli prisons. Hamas said the truce agreement would also allow hundreds of trucks of humanitarian, medical and fuel supplies to enter Gaza.

He added that Israel pledges, under the agreement, not to attack or arrest anyone across Gaza during the truce period.

“>http://“Hamas”: We are at a decisive moment regarding a temporary truce agreement

US President Joe Biden said he welcomed the deal. He said in a statement: “Today’s agreement should bring home more American hostages, and I will not rest until they are all released.”

The Qatari government said 50 civilian women and children detained in Gaza would be released “in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons.”

It added in a statement that the start date of the truce will be announced within the next 24 hours.

The agreement constitutes the first truce in the war, during which Israeli bombing razed large areas of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Gaza authorities say the war has killed 13,300 civilians in the small, densely populated enclave and left about two-thirds of its 2.3 million people homeless.

But Netanyahu said Israel’s broader mission has not changed.

In a recorded message at the start of a government meeting he said: “We are in a state of war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our objectives: to destroy (Hamas), return all hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza is capable of threatening Israel.”

Hamas said in its statement: “As we herald the arrival of a ceasefire agreement, we affirm that our hands will remain on the trigger and our victorious brigades will remain alert to defend our people and defeat the occupation and aggression ”.

A senior U.S. official said the detainees being released will include three Americans, including a 3-year-old girl whose parents were among those killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

The Israeli government said that in addition to Israeli citizens, more than half of the detainees are foreign or dual nationals from around 40 countries, including the United States, Thailand, Britain, France, Argentina, Germany, Chile, Spain and Portugal .

Israeli media said the process of releasing the detainees is expected to begin tomorrow, Thursday. Reports say the implementation of the agreement will have to wait 24 hours to give Israeli citizens the opportunity to ask the Supreme Court to prevent the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Qaddoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Prisoners’ Affairs Authority in Ramallah, told Reuters that of the more than 7,800 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, around 85 are women and 350 are minors. He added that most of them were arrested without charge or due to incidents such as stone-throwing at Israeli soldiers, and not for launching armed attacks.

Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, minister of state in Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Qatar’s chief negotiator in the ceasefire agreement talks, told Reuters the International Committee of the Red Cross would work inside Gaza to facilitate the release of prisoners.

“(It will be) an intense period,” Al-Khulaifi said. We will be in direct contact 24/7 with the International Committee of the Red Cross and with both parties to ensure that a perfect hostage release process is achieved.”

He added that the truce means “there will be no attack.” “No military movement, no expansion, nothing.”

He added that Qatar hopes the deal “is the nucleus of a broader agreement and a permanent ceasefire.” This is our intention.”

So far Hamas has released only 4 detainees: the two Americans, Judith Raana (59 years old) and her daughter Natalie Raana (17 years old) on 20 October for “humanitarian reasons”, and the two Israelis, Nurit Cooper (79 years old) and Yoshved Lifshitz (85 years old) on October 23.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement that participated in the October 7 attack with Hamas, said last night (Tuesday) that an Israeli woman detained in the October 7 attack had died.

The Al-Quds Brigades said on their Telegram channel: “We had previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy’s procrastination led to the loss of her life.”

While attention was focused on the detainee release agreement, fighting raged on the ground. Munir Al-Bursh, director general of the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army had ordered the evacuation of the Indonesian hospital in Gaza city. He added that Israel claimed that armed men were active in the hospital and threatened to take action against them within four hours.

Hospitals, including Gaza’s largest Shifa hospital, have become virtually unusable due to the conflict and lack of vital supplies. Israel claims Hamas hides military command centers and fighters inside them, a charge denied by Hamas and hospital workers.

Israel also said yesterday (Tuesday) that its forces had surrounded the Jabalia refugee camp, a crowded urban extension of Gaza City. Where Hamas is fighting the invading Israeli armored forces.

The Palestinian News and Information Agency (Wafa) said 33 people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli airstrike on part of Jabalia.

In southern Gaza, Hamas media said 10 people were killed and 22 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the town of Khan Yunis.