Israel says hostage release scheduled for today will only happen tomorrow

Tzachi Hanegbi gave no explanation for the delay in the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners whose list was officially released today by the Israeli authorities.

Israel and Hamas announced that they had reached an agreement that, in addition to providing for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, determines a four-day truce in the fighting.

However, although the temporary ceasefire was confirmed by the parties to the conflict and the mediating states – the United States and Qatar -, Tzachi Hanegbi did not say when the truce might begin.

The agreement with Hamas implies, according to the Israeli Government, the release within four days of at least 50 of the approximately 240 hostages taken by the Islamist group on the day it attacked Israel, on October 7th.

For its part, Israel will release some Palestinian prisoners, mostly teenagers.

State media in Egypt, the country that helped broker the agreement, say the truce will begin on Thursday morning.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he had warned the President of the United States, Joe Biden, that he will continue the war after the period of “humanitarian truce” expires.

A surprise and large-scale attack was launched on October 7 by Hamas against Israel, causing, according to Israeli authorities, more than 1,200 deaths and 240 hostages.

In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and is classified as terrorist by the European Union and the United States, bombing several of the group’s infrastructures in Gaza and imposing a total siege on the territory, cutting off water supplies. , fuel and electricity.

According to Hamas, Israeli retaliation has already killed more than 14,000 people.

The UN indicated that more than two-thirds of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip were displaced by the war, with the majority fleeing to the south.

Read Also: Israel says it found Hamas hideout under Gaza hospital