The release of 13 women and children under a Qatar-brokered truce will begin at 4pm on Friday, Qatar’s foreign ministry has announced.
Hostages will be released nine hours after the beginning of a humanitarian pause starting at 7am in Gaza, which will last four days, the ministry said.
“The beginning of the pause will be at 7am Friday 24 November, and it will last as agreed for four days,” Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Dr Majed al Ansari said.
“The first batch of civilians to be released from Gaza will be around 4pm of the same day. They will be 13 in number, all women, and children and those hostages of the same families will be put together in the same batch.”
It is expected that at least 50 hostages will be freed by Hamas during the four-day ceasefire under a new deal with Israel, brokered by the Qatar and the United States.
Dozens of children and their mothers held captive in Gaza since Hamas’s brutal incursion into Israel on 7 October will be freed via Egypt, according to the agreement.
