Four-day truce will start at 7am local time (05:00 GMT) on Friday and first 13 civilian captives will be released at about 4pm (14:00 GMT), Qatari foreign ministry says.
The mediator from Qatar further said, 13 women and children are set to be released in the first phase of the agreement on Friday. Israel’s prime minister’s office also said ’emissaries’ had contacted families of those to be released on Friday. It however requested that news organisations refrain from publishing the list of captives set to be released until the deal is done.
New information now has it that under the deal which seems to be under continuous scrutiny, 3 Palestinians will be released for every Israeli captives. This implies that we may expect 39 Palestinians to be released tomorrow from Israeli jails. This is a departure from the earlier released ratio of 5 Palestinians to 1 Israeli captives. The change may not be unconnected to the hardliners in the Israeli war cabinet who feel Palestinians got too much from the truce.
In a statement from Hamas on confirming the new arrangement for Friday, the group said
“For every Israeli captive released, there will be three Palestinian prisoners released, namely women and children.
Within four days, a total of 50 Israeli captives – women and children under the age of 19 – will be released.
200 aid trucks, including medical supplies for the entire Strip, will be allowed into Gaza per day.
Four fuel trucks will also be allowed into Gaza per day, including “cooking gas”.
Remember dpathtojannah.com had earlier reported that an expected Israel- Hamas Truce is to go into effect by 10.00am (0800 GMT) on Thursday.