Palestinian official says truce delayed over ‘last minute’ hostage list details

A Palestinian official told AFP Thursday that a delay in implementation of a truce in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and Hamas was due to “last minute” details over which hostages would be released and how.

The truce, widely expected to go into force on Thursday but delayed during the night, had been put back over “the names of the Israeli hostages and the modalities of their release”, said the official, who has knowledge of the negotiation process but asked to remain anonymous.

Lists of those to be freed had been exchanged by both sides, he added. Questions were also being raised over Red Cross access to the hostages before they would be released into Egypt, he said, and whether the Red Cross would have access to those who remained.

When the ceasefire would go into effect would be announced by mediator Qatar, “in co-ordination with the Egyptians and the Americans, in the coming hours today”, he added.

The agreement follows weeks of war in the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants broke through the militarised Gaza border on October 7 in an unprecedented attack. Israeli officials say about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 240 taken hostage.

Relentless Israeli bombardments and a ground invasion since then have killed more than 14,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip.

Under the deal, a humanitarian pause will be followed by releases of an initial 50 hostages from Israel and 150 Palestinian prisoners.

All of those to be freed under the three-to-one ratio are either women or aged 18 and under.

A senior Hamas official reached by phone told AFP that there were “obstacles linked to the situation on the ground”, hoping that there would not be “a mistake that has a negative impact on the truce or prevent it happening”.

But “mediators are shuttling between the two sides and the atmosphere is still constructive”, he added.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said Thursday that talks were “continuing and progressing positively”.

The timing of the pause “will be announced within the next few hours”, he said in a statement.

— AFP