A temporary ceasefire between Israeli and Hamas forces took hold in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the first respite in 48 days of conflict that has devastated the Palestinian enclave, but both sides warned that the war was far from over.
No big bombings, artillery strikes or rocket attacks were reported although Hamas and Israel both accused each other of sporadic violations.
The ceasefire, which began at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), involves the release later on Friday of 13 Israeli women and children held hostage by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Additional aid is to flow into Gaza, which has been gripped by a humanitarian crisis under weeks of Israeli bombardment that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
Hamas confirmed that all hostilities from its forces would cease. But Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing, later stressed that this was a “temporary truce”.
The Israeli military also said fighting would resume soon.
“This will be a short pause, at the conclusion of which the war (and) fighting will continue with great might and will generate pressure for the return of more hostages,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said, according to a Defence Ministry statement.
The Israeli military also told Palestinians not to try to return to homes in the northern part of Gaza, which it described as a “dangerous war zone”.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters burst across the border fence into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel has rained bombs on the Hamas-ruled enclave, killing some 14,000 Gazans, around 40% of them children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes to escape the violence as conditions grew ever more desperate, with food, drinking water, fuel and other basic supplies running short.
It is the bloodiest episode in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades. Israel’s stated intention is to eradicate Hamas once and for all.
Fighting had raged in the hours leading up to the truce, with officials inside the enclave saying a hospital in Gaza City was among the targets bombed.
WOMEN, CHILDREN HOSTAGES TO BE FREED
The first hostages, including elderly women, would be freed at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in Doha. All were seized in the initial Hamas assault on southern Israel.
The hostages were expected to be released to the Red Cross and an Egyptian security delegation that travelled to Gaza on Thursday, then brought out through Egypt for transfer to Israel, Egyptian security sources said.
Israel will release 39 Palestinian prisoners, among them 24 women and 15 teenagers, in the occupied West Bank in exchange for the 13 hostages due to be freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, a Palestinian official said.
“We all hope that this truce will lead to a chance to start a wider work to achieve a permanent truce,” he said.
Under the agreement, desperately needed aid began to be delivered to Gaza. By mid-morning, 60 trucks carrying aid had crossed from Egypt at the Rafah border point, according to Gaza border authorities.
Two of the first trucks to enter sported banners that said, “Together for Humanity.” Another said: “For our brothers in Gaza.”
Egypt has said 130,000 litres of diesel and four trucks of gas will be delivered daily to Gaza and that 200 trucks of aid would enter Gaza daily.
Israel’s COGAT agency, which liaises with the Palestinians on civilian affairs, said four tanks of fuel and four tanks of cooking gas were transferred from Egypt to U.N. humanitarian groups in southern Gaza via Rafah.
Egyptian authorities said some Palestinians stuck in Egypt were starting to return to Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.
People in southern Gaza who had evacuated homes in the early days of the war to shelters deeper west, started to go to their home areas to check on their houses.
SOURCE: REUTERS