Qatar on Thursday (Nov 23) confirmed that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will begin Friday (Nov 24) at 7 AM local time wherein as many as first 13 hostages will be released by 4 PM. The announcement was made by Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Dr. Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari who also suggested that he does not see any further delay in the truce. “We are hoping that we don’t see any delays and I think we’ve reached a point now where everything is in place and we are ready to go on the ground,” the official said during the presser.
The deal finally came to be when Qatar mediated the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Egypt and the US also helped in reaching the agreement. A total of 240 Israelis were held hostage by Hamas Islamist militant group in the aftermath of October 7 while about 1,200 people were killed.
Israel is also facing attacks from Lebanon’s Hezbollah and from Houthis in Yemen. However, the Qatari official said that this truce is specifically related to Hamas in Gaza. “We are not talking about other fronts. We talk specifically about the situation in Gaza,” Al Ansari reportedly said.
Meanwhile, there still remains bleak hope over the prospect of a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war situation.
Responding to a query if the truce is permanent, the foreign ministry spokesperson said, “What we have felt is that they are committed to this highly. Our aim is to reach this agreement and to pave the way for more pauses that can put an end to this war that everyone is suffering from. Hopefully, the end will be very soon and we need to build this and that in order to reach a lasting permanent ceasefire.”
“So we are hopeful that by 7am (05:00 GMT) tomorrow and everything will stop and we’ll have the beginning of the humanitarian pause,” he said adding, “The discussions over the details … of how this will happen were very difficult.
“That took a lot of discussions between both sides, but we are happy to report that the discussions happened in a very positive environment where both sides showed the commitment to the agreement itself,” the official was quoted as saying.
(With inputs from agencies)
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