By Micaela Burrow
A pause in the fighting between Israel’s military and Hamas was holding through Friday morning as Israel prepared to receive the first batch among 50 total hostages, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Israel expected to receive the initial group of 13 civilians who Hamas terrorists abducted during the bloody and unexpected Oct. 7 incursions into Israel by 4 p.m. local time, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to the WSJ. Meanwhile, Israel moved the 39 Palestinian prisoners — 24 women and 15 teenage boys — to a single detention center in preparation for their release, which will be just hours after receiving the Israeli citizens back.
“The war is not over yet,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said, according to the WSJ. “The humanitarian pause is temporary.”
The ceasefire is the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, although it emerged only after negotiations fraught with disagreement, tension and 11th-hour delays over details including how many hostages Hamas actually has, The New York Times reported.
The remaining Israeli hostages agreed to as part of the ceasefire deal are expected to be freed over the next four days in exchange for 150 total Palestinian prisoners, according to The Washington Post.
Aid trucks carrying fuel and supplies rolled into Gaza on Friday as well, the Post reported.
After the ceasefire, Hamas will still be in possession of scores of hostages. Israel has said that it will extend the ceasefire one day for every 10 additional hostages released, according to the Post.
The temporary pause in fighting will allow both sides to regroup. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned Gaza residents “the war is not over yet” ahead of the ceasefire taking effect Friday and dropped leaflets in the Khan Younis area warning Gazans not to return north, where the heaviest fighting has taken place, according to the Post.
The IDF stationed troops along ceasefire lines starting at 7 a.m. local time Friday, the WSJ reported.
We have completed preparations to receive the released hostages upon their return to Israel from Gaza.
In coordination with government ministries and security authorities, we have prepared to quickly receive the released hostages and give them all the necessary support.
We… pic.twitter.com/ndbKEdGD1d
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 24, 2023
Israel promised to respond to any Hamas threats even if that required breaking the ceasefire.
“Anyone who poses a threat to our forces will be hit. The security of our forces is a top priority, that’s how we behaved and that’s how we will continue to behave,” a senior officer in the IDF Southern Command said, according to the Times of Israel.
“We will use most of the time for the sake of readiness and planning the tasks expected of us immediately after the end of the truce. We are preparing to continue attacking with all our strength immediately after the end of the truce,” he said.
Ceasefires in previous conflicts involving Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip have sometimes collapsed, with each side accusing the other of continued rocket attacks, according to the WSJ. The IDF said a drone attack warning in Eilat turned out to be a false alarm, the Times of Israel reported.
