Qatar says truce in Gaza will start on Friday at 7am

Qatar, which has been mediating between Israel and Hamas, has just announced the temporary ceasefire in Gaza will start on Friday morning.

The first group of hostages will be released in the afternoon.

A spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry has been giving some details of the deal under which some hostages will be released in exchange for a four-day pause.

A list of the civilians to be released from Gaza has been received, he said, and the first group of civilians will be released at 4pm on Friday.

He said the criteria on who is to be released was “purely humanitarian” – “getting woman and children out of harm’s way as soon as possible”.

Thirteen hostages taken by Hamas will be released on Friday, Majid al-Ansari a spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry has said.

He said Qatar’s aim is for this deal is to end with a lasting truce.

Some of them are elderly women, some are children, and will be released at approximately 4pm, he said, noting there are a lot of “moving parts” on the ground, and that will happen every day within a window of time.

They will be handed over to the Red Cross, and the idea is to make the transfer as safe as possible for all parties, he said.

“We have to remember this is a war zone,” he added.

Majid al-Ansari says the timing he has given, of a 7am start to the truce, and the 4pm release of the hostages, is only the timing for the first day of the four day halt to fighting.

He has said 13 hostages will be released tomorrow, but added that this number applies only to Friday.

Under the deal, 50 hostages are to be freed during a four-day pause in fighting.

Here’s a little more from Majid al-Ansari, the spokesman for the foreign ministry of Qatar, which has mediated the deal.

He confirmed that Qatar is expecting some Palestinian prisoners to be freed by Israel, “as a result of the release of hostages at around 4pm”.

But he said he could not disclose information about how many prisoners would be released.

He said all the hostages to be released on Friday are women and children, and that hostages from the same families would be put together in the groups to be released.

Qatar is expecting aid to begin going into Gaza “as soon as possible” from the start of the truce at 7am.

“It will be a fraction of the need in Gaza,” he said.