Hamas on Sunday (Jan 19) shared the names of three Israeli women hostages who will be released as a part of the truce agreement.
“As part of the… prisoner swap deal, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, decided to release the following Israeli prisoners today,” the group said in a statement, giving the names of the women.
Israel later released a statement confirming that it had received the list and that it was “checking the details”.
“Israel has received the list of hostages that are supposed to be released today”, the statement said.
Shortly afterwards, another statement by Israel said that the truce would begin at 11:15 am local time.
The names of the hostages are Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher. Damari and Steinbrecher were seized by militants during the October 7, 2023 attack from kibbutz Kfar Aza, while Gonen was abducted from the Nova festival, news agency AFP quoted the Hostage and Missing Families Forum as saying.
Truce begins after brief delay
Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the truce would only take effect after Hamas provided a list of hostages to be released.
Hamas failed to meet the deadline of providing the names citing “technical reasons”.
The Palestinian militant group released a statement “affirming its commitment” to the terms of the truce, saying that “the delay in providing the names of those to be released in the first batch is due to technical reasons.”
-Netanyahu’s office released a statement almost an hour before the scheduled time of the hostage swap, saying, “The prime minister instructed the IDF (military) that the ceasefire, which is scheduled to take effect at 8:30 am, will not begin until Israel has received the list of released hostages, as Hamas has committed to providing.”
‘Israel reserves right to resume Gaza war,’ says Netanyahu
The Israeli PM on Saturday (Jan 18) said that his country reserves the right to resume its war against Hamas with US support “if necessary”.
Netanyahu, in a televised address, vowed to bring home all the hostages held in the besieged Palestinian enclave by Hamas.
“We reserve the right to resume the war if necessary, with American support.”
“We are thinking of all our hostages … I promise you that we will achieve all our objectives and bring back all the hostages….With this agreement, we will bring back 33 of our brothers and sisters, the majority (of them) alive,” Netanyahu said.
He said that the first phase of the truce was a “temporary ceasefire.”
“If we are forced to resume the war, we will do so with force,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel had “changed the face of the Middle East” since the war began.
(With inputs from agencies)
