Israel will release 39 prisoners in exchange for 13 hostages held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, a Palestinian official has said, amid a temporary truce to allow for the swap.
The inmates, all from the occupied West Bank or Jerusalem and including 24 women and 15 teenage males, will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross from a military jail at around 2pm UK time, according to the authorities.
This will coincide with the planned handover at the Gaza-Egypt border of 13 women and children who were among some 240 people kidnapped by militant gunmen during the deadly 7 October rampage in southern Israel, which sparked the latest devastating conflict.
Israel Defence Forces said it had completed preparations for receiving the freed hostages “and give them all the necessary support”.
It added: “After the initial reception and medical treatment, the released hostages will continue to hospitals, where they will be reunited with their families.”
Other key developments:
Israel says ceasefire could be extended
Aid begins to enter the besieged enclave
Palestinians are told not to return to northern Gaza
Both sides warn the war is not over
The release is part of a Israeli-Hamas truce that began at 5am UK time and appeared to be holding despite both sides accusing each other of sporadic violations.
Israeli tanks have moved away from the northern end of Gaza while there was an absence of hostile activity in the air from warplanes or rockets.
The start of the four-day ceasefire has also allowed aid to start to flow into the besieged enclave, which has been gripped by a humanitarian crisis following weeks of Israeli bombardment, with fuel and medical supplies cut off.
Israel says the truce could be extended beyond the initial four days if Hamas continues to release hostages at a rate of at least 10 per day.
A Palestinian source has said the total released could reach 100.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has warned hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who sought refuge in southern Gaza not to attempt to return to their homes in the northern half of the territory, which has been the focus of the ground offensive against Hamas, describing it as a “dangerous war zone”.
Sofian Abu Amer, from Gaza City, said: “We are returning to our homes to see and check our conditions there and how our homes are.
“We want to bring clothes and what we need.
“There is no cooking gas, food, or drink. The situation is very tragic.”
But Arabic-language leaflets dropped over southern Gaza on Friday said that “the war has not ended yet” and people should remain in place.
“Returning to the north is prohibited and very dangerous,” the leaflets said.
“Your fate and the fate of your families is in your hands. We have warned you.”
Despite the cessation in hostilities both sides have warned the war was far from over.
Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing, has stressed it was a “temporary truce”.
In a video message, he called for an “escalation of the confrontation with (Israel) on all resistance fronts”, including the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
As a ceasefire begins, Israel and Gaza holds its breath
At 7am in Israel and Gaza, the long-awaited temporary ceasefire came into effect.
In the minutes leading up to it, large clouds of black smoke could be seen rising from Gaza as the IDF carried out large airstrikes before the truce.
Unlike with previous ceasefires between the two sides, there wasn’t a large barrage of rocket fire from Gaza, perhaps indicating the extent to which Hamas’s rocket capability has been degraded.
Air raid sirens did sound along the Gaza border at 0715 but it’s unclear whether that was a violation of the agreement or a false alarm.
All being well, the first hostages will be released at 4pm this afternoon – 13 women and children. Their relatives have been informed.
A further group will be released tomorrow and on the subsequent days, if the pause holds.
At the same time, Israel will start releasing some of the 150 Palestinians they’ve agreed to free.
And this is a chance to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza – some 200 trucks a day are expected, along with fuel.
Israeli forces have stayed in position in northern Gaza but all Israeli flights over southern Gaza will have to stop, as they will in northern Gaza for six hours a day.
The truce is extremely fragile and with Hamas as fragmented as it now is, the chances of it being broken are high.
But as the sun rises on this Friday morning, people in Israel, and Gaza, hold their breath.
The Israeli military also said fighting would resume shortly.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “This will be a short pause, at the conclusion of which the war (and) fighting will continue with great might and will generate pressure for the return of more hostages.”
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7:26
Netanyahu: ‘The war continues’
The truce deal was reached after weeks of intense indirect negotiations, with Qatar, the US, and Egypt serving as mediators.
If it holds, it would mark the first significant break in fighting since Israel declared war on Hamas seven weeks ago.
Israel launched its onslaught on Gaza after insurgents stormed across the border fence on 7 October – killing 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages.
Israel’s retaliation against the Hamas-ruled territory has killed some 14,000 Gazans, around 40% of them children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes to escape the violence as conditions grew ever more desperate, with food, drinking water, fuel and other basic supplies running short.
It is the bloodiest episode in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s stated aim is to remove Hamas once and for all.
President Isaac Herzog’s outright denial that Israel was behind the attacks on Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies goes further than the official Israel government response which, so far, has been to say nothing at all.
It’s not unusual for Israel to remain silent after major attacks on its enemies, and guilt is generally assumed by the absence of comment, but Herzog was definitive, saying he “rejects out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation”.
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3:01
‘Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon’
That does not square with background conversations I’ve had with political and security officials here in recent days.
Admittedly no one has confessed outright, however discussion of the attacks and the potential consequences, are generally framed by a metaphorical nod and wink, and conversations had proceeded along the lines of ‘we all know what happened, even if we’re going to dance around it’.
Herzog might be right to suggest Hezbollah has other enemies, but aside from the US, which has repeatedly denied even knowing about the attacks ahead of time, I can not think of another state that would have the capability, will and purpose to carry out those attacks.
As one serving Western intelligence official remarked to me a few days ago, “None of us would dare do it because of the collateral damage”.
No one, not even Israel, has come up with an alternative culprit.
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The timing of the attacks, were it not Israel, are too coincidental.
This came around the same time Israel announced it was entering a new phase in the north and then launched multiple heavy barrages of Lebanon, including a massive air strike in southern Beirut.
A fire has ripped through a Russian missile depot in the Tver region deep inside the country after it was targeted in a Ukrainian drone attack, the defence ministry in Moscow has said.
Footage shows a second Ukrainian drone attack on the southwestern Russian region of Krasnodar also triggered a fire and caused a series of explosions.
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its forces shot down 101 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and occupied Crimea during the overnight attacks.
The drone strikes were carried out as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskky said he is hoping to meet Donald Trump next week when he travels to the US – where he will present US President Joe Biden with a “victory plan” in relation to the war.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister said Russia appears to be planning strikes on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the winter.
Posts on local Telegram channels said a Ukrainian drone attack struck an arms depot near the town of Toropets, in Russia’s Tver region – which is about 380 kilometres (240 miles) northwest of Moscow and about 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the Ukrainian border on Saturday.
Russian authorities closed a 100-kilometre (62-mile) stretch of a highway and evacuated passengers from a nearby rail station.
The depot appeared to be just miles from a Russian weapons arsenal storing missiles, bombs and ammunition in Tver that was struck by Ukrainian drones early Wednesday, injuring 13 people and also causing a huge fire.
Meanwhile, at least 1,200 people were evacuated from Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region after an ammunition depot and missile arsenal were struck in the second drone attack overnight, the local governor has said.
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Most of those evacuated were staying with friends and relatives, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in either Tver or Krasnodar.
Ukraine warning of attacks on nuclear sites
It comes as Kyiv is urging the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ukraine’s allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country’s nuclear plants as it warns they could be targeted in Russian attacks.
“In particular, it concerns open distribution devices at (nuclear power plants and) transmission substations, critical for the safe operation of nuclear energy,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader has said he plans to meet Republican presidential candidate Mr Trump on either Thursday or Friday next week.
During the trip, Mr Zelenskyy will present Mr Biden with a so-called victory plan as he hopes to bring about an end to the conflict.
The Ukrainian president has said the plan will include long-range striking capabilities and other weapons long sought by Kyiv, and will serve as the basis for any future negotiation with Russia.
He is also expected to push Washington to lift restrictions on long-range missile strikes inside Russia.
Mr Zelenskyy will attend sessions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly and also plans to meet vice president Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in this year’s US election, in separate meetings on 26 September.
The developments come as three sources have told Reuters that Iran did not include mobile launchers with the close-range ballistic missiles that Washington has accused Tehran of delivering to Russia for use against Ukraine.
The sources – a European diplomat, a European intelligence official and a US official – said it was not clear why Iran did not supply launchers with the Fath-360 missiles, raising questions about when and if the weapons will be operational.
At least 44 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Gaza in the last 24 hours.
A strike on the Lebanese capital Beirut killed at least 31 people including three children and seven women, the country’s health minister Firas Abiad said.
Fifteen of the 68 wounded in the attack remain in hospital.
Ali Harake, the head of the rescue team searching through the rubble, told Sky News his team is still looking for between 17 and 18 missing people – though he fears none have survived.
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It is understood two apartment blocks in a densely populated southern neighbourhood collapsed in the strike – the deadliest attack on Beirut in decades.
Top Hezbollah commanders are believed to have been meeting in the basement of one of the buildings.
More on Hezbollah
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Hezbollah has confirmed two of its senior commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, died in the strike while an Israeli military spokesperson said that at least 16 Hezbollah militants were killed.
Wahbi oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces – a commando unit that seeks to infiltrate and carry out attacks in Israel – until early 2024. Aqil was also a top commander for the Iran-backed group.
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The Palestinian militant group Hamas has described the killing of Aqil as a “crime” and a “folly”, adding Israel will “pay the price”.
Meanwhile, at least 13 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City, according to a local report.
The strikes are believed to have hit several schools sheltering displaced people in the southern part of the city.
The strikes come after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.
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Hezbollah said its latest wave of rocket attacks was a response to past Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
It came days after mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies killed at least 37 people, including two children. Some 2,900 others were wounded in the assault which has been widely attributed to Israel.