A senior Hamas official said the terror group has sent Israel the requested list of hostages to be released today. This was reported by Palestinian media. An Israeli official quoted by public broadcaster Kan confirmed that the Islamist movement had handed over the list to mediators. Confirmation also ratified by a Qatari press release.
The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip therefore came into force at 10.15 am Italian time. The first phase of the truce was originally scheduled to begin this morning at 8.30 local time, but was postponed because Hamas was late in handing over the names of the three women who will be exchanged this afternoon. The IDF continued to strike terrorist targets in the Strip over the past two hours.
At the scheduled time, 8.30 this morning (7.30 in Italy), instead of a truce there was another bloodbath. Sunday dawned on the rubble of new targets hit by the Israeli military. At least eight people were killed and 25 others were injured. Gaza Civil Protection spokesman Mahmoud Basal said on his Telegram channel that at least five people were killed in Gaza City and three others in the northern cities of the enclave between 8.30am and 9.30am local time. .
Shortly before, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced that the truce would be postponed because Hamas had not yet delivered the list with the names of the three hostages, whose release should take place this afternoon. The Islamist group said it was committed to respecting the ceasefire agreement and that the delay was due to “technical reasons in the field”.
Speaking to the media, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the army would continue to attack Gaza until it received the three names. Shortly after his message, Israeli forces indeed struck several “terrorist targets” in the northern and central Gaza Strip.