International

Israel-Hamas truce will begin at 7 a.m. local time Friday, Qatar says

A truce between Israel and Hamas will begin at 7 a.m. local time (midnight ET) on Friday, and civilian hostages will be released at 4 p.m. local time, Qatar announced Thursday, CNN reports.

Thirteen women and children will be released, according to a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, Majed Al-Ansari.

An undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners are also set to be released around 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), after the hostages are freed from Gaza, the Qatari spokesperson said in a news conference.

The route the freed hostages will take cannot be disclosed for safety reasons, Al-Ansari said in response to a question from CNN. Qatar will be working closely on the operation with the Red Cross and “parties of the conflict.”

The list of hostages expected to be released has been handed to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, and talks between all mediating parties continued until this morning, Al-Ansari said.

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