Israel on Sunday, January 19, said a truce with Hamas began in Gaza at 10:15 am (9:15 GMT), nearly three hours after initially scheduled, following a last-minute delay on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement from Netanyahu’s office came after Hamas named the three female hostages it plans to release on Sunday.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office, issued less than an hour before the truce had been set to start at 8:30 am (6:30 am GMT), said he had “instructed the (Israeli army) that the ceasefire (…) will not begin until Israel has received the list” of hostages to be freed. During the delay, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed eight people.
Israel eventually received the list of three hostages to be released by Hamas as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. “Israel has received the list of hostages that are supposed to be released today,” the statement said, adding the “security establishment is currently checking the details.”
“According to the plan for the release of the hostages, the ceasefire for phase one in Gaza will come into effect at 11:15 (local time),” a statement from the prime minister’s office said. The truce was initially scheduled to begin at 7:30 am (6:30 GMT).
Hamas attributed the delay to “technical reasons,” as well as the “complexities of the field situation and the continued bombing,” ultimately publishing the names of three Israeli women to be released at around 9:30 am on Sunday. It had earlier said in a statement that it was committed to the ceasefire deal announced last week.
Mediator Qatar also confirmed the truce’s start and said some of the initial three hostages to be freed also hold foreign citizenship. “We confirm that the names of the three hostages who will be released today have been handed over to the Israeli side. They are three Israeli citizens, one of whom holds Romanian citizenship and the other British citizenship. Thus, the ceasefire has begun,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in a statement.
The ceasefire is set to pause the fighting after 15 months of war and see the release of dozens of hostages held by the militants in the Gaza Strip and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel’s Cabinet approved the deal early on Saturday.
Brokered by mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt in months of indirect talks between the warring sides, the ceasefire is the second truce achieved in the devastating conflict.
