Palestinian Commissioner for prisoners, Qadura Fares has disclosed that the prisoners slated for release from Israeli jails will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Israel’s Ofer military jail at about 4pm (14:00 GMT).
Speaking to a news agency, Fares added, “After the Red Cross receives the [Palestinian] prisoners, the ones from Jerusalem will go to Jerusalem and the ones from the West Bank will gather in Betunia municipal council where their families will be waiting.”
For the first exchange, Hamas will release13 hostages and in return, Israel will release 39 Palestinians from its jails.
A total of 150 Palestinian women and children are expected to be released under the truce deal, which will also see the release of 50 captives held in Gaza.
There are at least 7,200 Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army disclosed on X that four fuel tankers and four tankers of cooking gas have been transferred from Egypt to UN aid organisations via the Rafah crossing into southern Gaza.
The army added that the delivery of fuel was approved by the Israeli government as part of the truce that came into effect on Friday morning.
Also, Palestine Red Crescent received 2 ambulances and 85 aid trucks. The aid group stated that the vehicles entered through the Rafah crossing.
The trucks were loaded with humanitarian aid, including food, water, medical supplies and medicines, it added.
In addition, UK Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, announced that Britain will provide a further £30m ($37.38m) of funding which will be spent on vital aid such as shelter and medical provisions in Gaza.
This came as he traveled to the occupied Palestinian territories on the second day of his visit to the region. Cameron was in Israel on Thursday, November 23, 2023.
In a statement on Friday, Cameron said, “We are hopeful that today will see the release of hostages, and I am urging all parties to continue to work towards the release of every hostage.”
He noted, “A pause will also allow access for life-saving aid to the people of Gaza.”
“I am proud that a fourth UK flight carrying critical supplies landed in Egypt today,” he added.
“It is vital to protect civilians from harm, and we are urgently looking at all avenues to get aid into Gaza, including land, maritime and air routes,” he noted.
Conflicting Emotions At Play
According to Zak Hania, a displaced Palestinian who fled the Shati refugee camp, Palestinians in Gaza are having “mixed feelings” about the effected four-day pause in the fighting.
Hania also said Gaza’s residents “are still nervous.”
“We don’t know whether to be happy or sad. Our houses are broken, our hearts are broken, everything is broken in Gaza now. We do not know how life will continue after this,” he told a news agency.
In response to whether he was planning to head back home during the pause, Hania responded, “We can’t go because the Israeli army said nobody’s allowed to go back to the north and people are afraid and hesitant to go or not.”
He added, “I think it’s dangerous to go back because they’re still on the road separating the north and south of Gaza … We’re not sure about anything and we’re just praying that the ceasefire holds.”
Hamza Ibrahim, a resident of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, also noted that Palestinians are both joyful and sad following the start of the pause.
Speaking to the news agency, Ibrahim opined, “The truce is a great source of relief from the pain and stress that people feel when they live in an ongoing state of bombardment in Gaza.”
Ibrahim said that the pause allows them to “restore daily activity and reconnect with family.”
He added, however, that Palestinians are also sad that the “nightmare” will return soon.
“After all that, a few days of a ceasefire is not enough to rebuild Gaza again. The people whose homes have been destroyed in the north, where are those people going to go after this?
“We need thousands of trucks to rebuild Gaza again; we need years and decades more to rebuild Gaza again.”
Hamza Ibrahim
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