A four-day pause in fighting has formally begun in Gaza.
Officials in Qatar, which played a key role as an intermediary, said that an operations room will monitor the truce and the release of hostages from Gaza.
Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, revealed that Qatar has direct and real-time lines of communication with Israel, the Hamas political office in Doha and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The deal, struck after lengthy and complex talks mediated by Qatar, the U.S and Egypt, comes more than six weeks after the conflict began last month.
At least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attacks on October 7, and more than 240 people taken hostage.
The Israeli offensive has killed between 13,000 and 14,000 people, thousands of them children, according to Palestinian officials. More are thought to be under rubble. Swaths of northern Gaza have been destroyed in the fighting, and up to a million people displaced.
Israel intensified its bombardment of Gaza overnight before the beginning of the pause at 7am local time (05:00 GMT).
After the start of the truce, Palestinian families began to return to their homes in the southern areas of the Gaza Strip.
Also, aid trucks started entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt around 90 minutes after a truce began.
Two of the trucks, representing Egyptian organisations, had banners that said, “Together for Humanity” and “For our brothers in Gaza.”
The spokesperson of the Rafah crossing administration confirmed the flow of aid and fuel trucks into the Gaza Strip. “We expect 230 trucks to enter today,” he said.
In a post on X, UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak thanked “Qatar, Egypt and others for the intensive diplomacy” that resulted in today’s truce.
He called the humanitarian pause “critical to end the terrible ordeal of hostages held by Hamas and get life-saving aid into Gaza”.
Sunak added: “We will not stop until all hostages are safely returned.”
War Not Over Yet
In a video post on X, Israeli military spokesman, Avichay Adraee averred that “the war is not over yet.”
Speaking in Arabic, Adraee said that the humanitarian pause is temporary and movement to northern Gaza is not allowed.
“The northern Gaza Strip is a dangerous war zone and it is forbidden to move north. For your safety, you must remain in the humanitarian zone in the south,” he said.
He noted that it is only possible to move from the north of the Strip to the south via Salah al-Din Road, iterating that movement of residents from the south of the Strip to the north “is not allowed and dangerous.”
According to the army, Israeli forces will be stationed at the truce lines and move on the Salah al-Din axis and Beach Street in Gaza during the pause.
It said that it will not allow Palestinians to head to northern Gaza during the truce.
Leaflets warning displaced Palestinians against moving north were also dropped.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said that shortly before the start of the truce, it had destroyed stretches of tunnels and a number of tunnel shafts in the area of al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip.
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