Home / Headline / Israel-Hamas ceasefire holding as first hostages to be released from Gaza

Israel-Hamas ceasefire holding as first hostages to be released from Gaza

Israel and Hamas started a four-day ceasefire in Gaza on Friday that appeared to be holding shakily with no major reports of bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks, although both sides were accused of violations. 

4-day truce underway as 200 aid trucks set to be allowed into besieged Gaza Strip.

Posters with images of young children hang off a table covered with toys, with more posters showing children's images hanging above.

The latest:

  • 4-day pause in fighting begins between Hamas and Israel.
  • First group of 13 women and child hostages held by Hamas set to be released later Friday.
  • Aids trucks are seen crossing into Gaza at the Rafah crossing at Egypt.

Israel and Hamas started a ceasefire in Gaza on Friday that appeared to be holding shakily with no major reports of bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks, although both sides were accused of violations.

The first pause in a 48-day-old war began at 7 a.m. local time, involving a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, the release of 13 Israeli women and child hostages by the militants later in the day and aid to flow into the devastated Palestinian enclave.

A number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons were to be freed in exchange.

A Reuters correspondent near the northern part of Gaza heard no Israeli air force activity overhead, and saw no tell-tale contrails typically left by Palestinian rocket launches. A Reuters also correspondent saw dozens of Israeli military vehicles, including tanks, moving away from the Gaza Strip. Several soldiers in the armoured column said they had been pulled out of the Palestinian territory.

Within minutes of the truce deadline passing, rocket sirens sounded in two Israeli villages near the Gaza Strip, warning of possible Palestinian rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled enclave. An Israeli government spokesman said Hamas had carried out a rocket launch in violation of the truce but there were no immediate reports of damage.

Two flatbed trucks covered with canvas are seen driving on a road.

Janice Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, said it’s not unexpected that there could be artillery fire for the first few hours after the truce went into effect.

“That’s what you normally see,” Stein told CBC The National’s Adrienne Arsenault. But she is “optimistic” the temporary truce will hold for the four days.

Fighting had raged in the hours leading up to the truce, with officials inside the Hamas-ruled enclave saying a hospital in Gaza City was among the targets bombed. Both sides also signalled the pause would be temporary before fighting resumes.

Hamas expected to release 13 hostages, Israel 39 prisoners

As the long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas clicks begins, Israelis and Palestinians are hoping the pause in fighting holds long enough to allow hostages and life-saving aid to arrive safely. Hamas is expected to release 13 women and children and Israel is expected to release 39 women, young men and children.

The Indonesian hospital was reeling under relentless bombing, operating without light and filled with bedridden old people and children too weak to be moved, Gaza health officials said.

Additional aid would start flowing into Gaza and the first hostages, including elderly women, would be freed at 4 p.m. local time, with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in Doha.

Aid trucks were entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt around 1½ hours after the truce began, Reuters TV footage showed.

A boy walks amid a ruined pink and blue building.

Israel’s military said its troops would stay behind a ceasefire line inside Gaza, without giving details of its position. Israel had received an initial list of hostages to be freed and was in touch with families, the prime minister’s office said.

Israel had received an initial list of hostages to be freed and was in touch with families, the prime minister’s office said.

‘I really want to see her here,’ says family member of Hamas hostage

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat is reported to be among the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, says people in Israel are feeling some optimism — but also deep uncertainty as they wait to see who, if anyone, will actually be released.

People in Gaza ‘losing hope’

The diplomatic breakthrough promised some relief for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment, as well as families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

Israel launched its devastating invasion of Gaza after gunmen from Hamas burst across the border fence on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages, according to Israeli government tallies.

Since then, Israel has rained bombs on the tiny enclave, killing some 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza, around 40 per cent of them children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A soldier speaks on a cellphone in the desert.

“People are exhausted and are losing hope in humanity,” UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Thursday after a visit to Gaza, referring to “unspeakable suffering” in the enclave.

“They need respite, they deserve to sleep without being anxious about whether they will make it through the night. This is the bare minimum anyone should be able to have.”

Ahead of the ceasefire, fighting continued at even greater than normal intensity on Thursday, with Israeli jets hitting more than 300 targets and troops engaged in heavy fighting around Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City.

An army spokesperson said operations would continue until troops received the order to stop.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the war after the truce expires to destroy Hamas’s military capabilities, end its 16-year rule in Gaza and return all the nearly 240 captives estimated to be held in Gaza by Hamas and other armed factions.

“We will continue it until we achieve all our goals,” Netanyahu said, adding that he had delivered the same message in a phone call to U.S. President Joe Biden.

The Israel-Hamas truce is a breakthrough. Here’s how it could fall apart | About That

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a four-day ceasefire in Gaza, enabling the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Andrew Chang examines the fragile truce and the ways it could fall apart.

With files from CBC News and The Associated Press

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Credit belongs to : www.cbc.ca

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