The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed having received a list, which remained unpublished until the families were informed.
The number of Palestinian detainees who are to be released on Saturday in exchange for the hostages, in accordance with the ongoing ceasefire agreement in Gaza, has not been revealed. But the Israeli prison service said it had received a list, specifying that some would be returned to the Gaza Strip, others to their homes in the occupied West Bank.
“The al-Qassam Brigades and other groups (…) will release the four prisoners on Saturday” and will entrust them to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a source close to Hamas told AFP under cover anonymity, without specifying time.
These releases, which could take place as early as Saturday morning, take place within the framework of the truce which came into force last Sunday, the first phase of which is to last six weeks. It is supposed to allow the release of 33 hostages against some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.
After 15 months of war against Israel, what remains of Hamas?
Families in doubt
Three young women having already been released last weekend, in exchange for the release of 90 Palestinians from prison, there will then still be 26 hostages to be released in this first phase. The names were communicated but without release orders.
The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 91 are still in Gaza, including 34 dead according to the army.
Others were announced dead by Hamas but without Israeli confirmation, plunging families into terrible doubt.
In retaliation for October 7, Israel launched a devastating offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip, which left at least 47,283 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry. The operation caused a humanitarian disaster.
The truce has generally been respected since Sunday, apart from a few incidents. According to the agreement, the displaced “in the south of the Gaza Strip will begin to return to the north” on Saturday, said the Hamas official. “An Egyptian-Qatari committee will supervise the implementation of the agreement on the ground.”
Agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza: four Israeli women must be released on Saturday, according to a Hamas leader
Israeli withdrawal delayed in Lebanon
On the Lebanese border, the other ceasefire involving Israel, this time with Hezbollah, still held on Friday.
But Mr. Netanyahu made it known that the withdrawal of his troops from southern Lebanon “would continue” beyond the 60 days provided for in the agreement, i.e. this Sunday.
-As the planned arrangements “have not been fully accomplished by Lebanon, the phased withdrawal process will continue in agreement with the United States,” his office said.
One of the clauses stipulated that “the Lebanese army deploys in southern Lebanon” and imposes “the withdrawal of Hezbollah beyond the Litani (river)”, he added in a press release.
Believing that this is not the case, Israel will “achieve the objectives of the war” to allow its residents displaced from the border area to return there “in safety”.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has already called for the Israeli withdrawal to take place “within the set deadlines”. He denounced “the continuation of Israeli violations”, deploring “the dynamiting of houses and the destruction of border villages”.
Lebanese authorities did not react to Israel’s announcement on Friday.
Israel-Hamas truce: thousands of Gazans displaced on their way home
“Methods of war” in the West Bank
At the same time, Israeli soldiers continued on Friday in the occupied West Bank, for the fourth consecutive day, a military operation called “Iron Wall” in Jenin, one of the bastions of Palestinian resistance.
Hundreds of Palestinians left the vast refugee camp in this town in the north of the Palestinian territory, occupied by Israel since 1967, on Thursday.
Two Palestinians were killed Friday in an Israeli strike, according to Palestinian authorities and the Israeli army, in Qabatiya, a town in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli army claims that “more than 10 terrorists have been eliminated” so far. The Ramallah Health Ministry has reported at least 14 deaths since Tuesday.
The UN denounced the use of “methods of war” and “illegal use of lethal force” by Israel, adding that most of the victims “were apparently unarmed”.
