Israel and Hamas will cease hostilities on Thursday morning, according to Egyptian state media.

Israel and Hamas will cease hostilities on Thursday morning, according to Egyptian state media.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group have announced a cease-fire agreement. Washington and Qatar also played a role in mediating the accord, which would temporarily end the destructive war, which is currently in its seventh week.

According to the Israeli government, the agreement calls for Israel to free certain Palestinian inmates in exchange for Hamas releasing at least 50 of the approximately 240 hostages it took during its raid on Israel on October 7 over the course of four days. According to Egyptian official media, the truce will start on Thursday morning. The cease-fire agreement, which would provide the first break for Palestinians weary of the war in Gaza—where, according to health officials, over 11,000 people have died—was mediated by Egypt.

Before the Cabinet voted early on Wednesday to support the pact, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the war would go on regardless of any compromise struck. Approximately 1,200 individuals have died in Israel, the majority of them during Hamas’s initial onslaught.

TRUCCE IS SAID TO BEGIN THURSDAY MORNING BY EGYPTIAN MEDIA

Egypt’s publicly owned The Israel-Hamas truce, according to Qahera TV, will begin at 10 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) on Thursday.

The four-day cease-fire, which Egypt assisted in mediating, will enable the release of several captives taken prisoner by Hamas during its offensive on southern Israel on October 7. As a result of the agreement, more humanitarian supplies will be allowed into Gaza and several Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel will be freed.

The truce was also supposed to start on Thursday at 10 a.m., according to Israeli media.

WHO Records 178 Incidents of Attacks on Healthcare Facilities

Since the battle began on October 7, the World Health Organisation has recorded 178 attacks on healthcare facilities that have claimed 553 lives, including 22 healthcare professionals, the agency’s regional director said on Wednesday.

Approximately 800 individuals, including 48 medical personnel, were hurt in the strikes, which also damaged 24 hospitals and 32 ambulances, according to Ahmed Al-Mandhari during an online briefing.

According to him, the conflict has resulted in the closure of 47 out of 72 basic health care clinics and 27 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza. According to him, the facilities stopped offering services, mostly due to attacks and a shortage of gasoline.

He declared, “Hospitals must be permitted to replenish the resources they require to continue operating.” “In an ocean of needs, we cannot continue to drop droplets of aid.”

WHOSE FAMILY MEMBERS ARE KILLED DURING A STRIKE?

According to the World Health Organisation, an attack on the house where they were seeking refuge killed one of its local employees in Gaza, along with her family.

According to the report, Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29, was slain on Tuesday along with her two brothers, her husband, and their 6-month-old child.

Over 50 people are estimated to have died in the strike, according to a statement released late on Tuesday by the U.N. health agency. It took some time to verify the report and identify the perpetrator of the attack.

Israel has begun airstrikes throughout Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7. Some of the rockets fired by Palestinian militants at Israel have not reached their target.

Representative of WHO for the Palestinian territories, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, described Alhaj as a “wonderful person with a radiant smile, cheerful, positive, and respectful.” She was a real asset to the team.

Among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled from northern Gaza to seek safety in the south was Alhaj, a patient administrator for the World Health Organisation (WHO) since 2019. She was now residing with relatives after leaving her house in Gaza City.

“This is just another example of the senseless loss in this conflict,” the WHO remarked of her death.

POPE CRIES FOR END OF “TERRORISM” AND PEACE

In private meetings with delegations from Israel and Palestine, Pope Francis pleaded for world peace, an end to terrorism, and an end to “passions that are killing everyone.”

Francis visited on Wednesday with relatives of hostages held in Gaza during Hamas’ incursion in southern Israel on October 7, in meetings that were scheduled prior to the announcement of the Israeli-Hamas prisoner agreement. Additionally, he had a private meeting with a group of Palestinians who have relatives imprisoned in Israel.

At the conclusion of his weekly general audience, Francis stated he had learned from both of them how much the war was costing them and how much agony they were going through. People wearing Palestinian scarves and flags, along with little posters depicting what appeared to be bodies in a ditch with the term “genocide” printed underneath, were present in the audience.

“Here we’ve gone beyond war,” declared Francis. This is terrorism, not combat. Let’s move forward for peace, please. Say a lot of prayers for peace.

In addition, he begged God to assist the Israelites and the Palestinians in “resolving problems and not going forward with passions that are killing everyone in the end.”

Francis has advocated for an end to the war on several occasions.

A LIST OF PALESTINIAN PRISONERS WHO MAY BE RELEASED UNDER HOSTAGE DEAL IS PUBLISHED BY ISRAEL

The list of 300 Palestinian inmates and detainees that Israel’s Justice Ministry has made public may be exchanged for hostages.

Teens who were detained over the past year for relatively minor offences, such as rock throwing or alleged provocation, make up the majority of individuals on the list released on Wednesday. While some received sentences for attempted murder, none were found guilty of murder.

There are about forty women on the list, with the youngest inmate being fourteen. The prisoners are to be allowed to return to their residences in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank.

The truce for hostages, which was declared on Wednesday, calls for the release of 50 hostages over the course of four days, most likely beginning on Thursday. During this time, hostilities will cease.

After that, the respite will last one extra day, and 10 further hostages released will result in the release of 10 more Palestinian detainees.

Although the Ministry of Justice released the list of 300 inmates in case the agreement is prolonged, Israel is expected to free 150 Palestinian prisoners in the first four days. The public has 24 hours to object to any release under Israeli law.

Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic stated on Wednesday, “We hope that the agreement on a pause of hostilities that has just been reached will allow for a substantial surge in humanitarian aid delivery into and within Gaza.”

He told EU legislators in Strasbourg, France, “We certainly hope that this will not be a one-off” and demanded “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses throughout Gaza.”

The largest global provider of aid to the Palestinians is the 27-nation European Union. The majority of the aid has already arrived in Gaza thanks to 15 EU aid cargo planes, according to Lenarcic, and more are on their way.

The group maintains that additional vehicles must be permitted to pass through the Rafah crossing point with Egypt in addition to opening other channels.

Less than 50 trucks per day make it into Gaza, according to Lenarcic, who called this figure “woefully inadequate” and described entry into the territory as “extremely challenging.” Although he praised Israel for allowing some fuel to enter Gaza, he pointed out that it only provides for roughly one-third of the city’s necessities.

BRITS URGE BOTH SIDES TO MAKE SURE THAT “DELIVERED IN FULL” HOSTAGE AGREEMENT

The agreement to free some of the Israeli captives held in Gaza has been welcomed by the British government, which has urged all sides to make sure it is “delivered in full.”

The accord is “a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” according to Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

China expresses hope that the truce agreement will reduce tensions.

The four-day truce that Israel and Hamas have negotiated is welcomed, according to the Chinese authorities.

At a daily briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated, “We welcome the provisional truce reached by the parties concerned and hope it will help to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, de-escalate the conflict, and ease tensions.”

TRUCE, SAYS RUSSIA, IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT AWAY TO END HOSTILITIES

A deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of captives was praised by the Kremlin on Wednesday as a step towards the end of hostilities.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, described the agreement’s announcement as “the first good news from Gaza in a long time.”

With hope, France’s national teams will be among the first to be released under the deal.

The foreign minister of France expressed optimism that French citizens would be among the first hostages freed as a result of an agreement between Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire.

French nationals should be among them and possibly even among the first group to be released, the minister, Catherine Colonna, stated on France Inter radio on Wednesday. We are striving to achieve that.