Hamas prepared on Saturday to release 14 Israeli hostages in exchange for 42 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, in a new swap on the second day of a ceasefire that has allowed crucial humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and provided some relief to civilians after seven weeks of war.
On the first day of the temporary truce, Hamas released 24 of the estimated 240 hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli territory, and Israel released 39 Palestinians held in its jails.
Hamas gave Egypt and Qatar, which are acting as mediators in the process, a list of 14 hostages who will be released, which was in turn communicated to Israel, said an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details about the ongoing negotiations.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the terror group will release one Israeli hostage for every three prisoners released, and the Israeli prison service said earlier it was preparing to release 42 inmates.
It is not yet clear how many non-Israeli captives would be included in the group.
During the four-day ceasefire, Hamas is expected to release at least 50 hostages, while Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children.
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The four-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has begun. The deal, sealed Wednesday with the help of Qatar, established a four-day truce and details the exchange of 50 hostages held in Gaza for 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Israel announced that the truce will be extended by an additional day for every 10 extra hostages released, something U.S. President Joe Biden said he expects to happen.
The start of the ceasefire on Friday morning brought calm to the 2.3 million desperate Palestinians after relentless Israeli bombardment killed thousands of people, drove three-quarters of the population from their homes and flattened residential areas. Nor did they fire rockets into Israel from Gaza.
Humanitarian aid arrives
The United Nations said the pause allowed it to increase the distribution of food, water and medicine to its highest level since humanitarian aid convoys were allowed to arrive in the besieged enclave on Oct. 21.
In Khan Yunis, a city in the south of the territory, a crowd with gasoline cans and other containers waited in a long line outside a gas station on Saturday in hopes of getting some of the newly delivered fuel.
Israel released Palestinians who were imprisoned in its jails. Photo: AP/Majdi Mohammed.
For the first time in more than a month, aid has reached northern Gaza, where the Israeli ground offensive is focused. A U.N. convoy delivered flour to two compounds hosting displaced people.
The United Nations said it and the Palestinian Red Crescent had evacuated 40 patients and family members from a hospital in Gaza City, where much of the fighting has been fought, to another in Khan Yunis.
But the relief from the ceasefire is relative on both sides. In the Israeli because not all the hostages will be released, and in the Palestinian because of its brevity.
The truce leaves Gaza mired in a humanitarian crisis and under threat of an early resumption of fighting.
The war began after several thousand Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing dozens of hostages, including babies, women, the elderly and soldiers.
The war in Gaza has led to an uptick in violence in the occupied West Bank and raised fears that the conflict could spread across the region.
But hours before the truce began, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was quoted as telling troops that the pause would be short and that the war would continue for at least two more months.
The Israeli campaign has claimed the lives of more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip's Health Ministry. The figure does not include up-to-date data from hospitals in the north of the enclave, where communications are cut off. About 6,000 people are missing and there are fears they may be buried under the rubble, he added.
The Gaza ministry's tally does not distinguish between civilian deaths and combatants. Israel claims it has killed thousands of Hamas insurgents, but has presented no evidence.