International Desk //

After a delay of several hours in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the long-awaited ceasefire came into effect at 11:15 am (9:15 GMT) local time on Sunday. Qatar, one of the mediators of the ceasefire agreement, confirmed this.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid al-Ansari announced the start of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian independence movement Hamas in a statement today.

The spokesman said, “After the ceasefire in Gaza begins, three hostages will be handed over to Israel today. All three of them are Israeli citizens.”

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassem Brigades, revealed the names of the three hostages. He said, “We have decided to release the three today in accordance with the terms of the agreement.” They are Romi Gonen (24), Emily Damari (28) and Doron Steinbrecher (31).

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the ceasefire would take effect this morning, three hours late.

The Israeli coalition government’s cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement in Gaza early Saturday morning. Earlier, Israel’s National Security Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement last Friday.

According to the agreement, the ceasefire was supposed to take effect in Gaza at 8:30 am local time on Sunday. But it did not. It took effect after a few hours of delay.

On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian independence organization Hamas attacked Israel. More than 1,200 people were killed in this attack. More than 250 people were taken hostage in Gaza. Hamas has released many of them.

Israel began its indiscriminate attacks on Gaza from the day Hamas launched its attack. According to the Gaza authorities, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in this attack so far. More than 110,000 people have been injured. Millions have been displaced.

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