Hamas says agreed to four-day truce

In a statement released early on Wednesday, Hamas said the deal, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, will allow the entry of hundreds of humanitarian, medical and fuel aid trucks to Gaza.

During the four-day pause, it said, Zionist regime will cease aerial assaults in southern Gaza and restrict them to six hours a day in the north.

Hamas earlier emphasized that any agreement is necessarily based on the conditions of the Palestinian resistance.

The deal will also see the release of 50 Israeli war prisoners in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women and children from the occupying entity’s jails.

The resistance group also noted that Israel will not attack or arrest anyone in Gaza or obstruct the movement of its residents along the Salah al-Din highway, the main road running north and south in the besieged enclave.

In a vote early Wednesday morning, Israel’s cabinet approved the agreement on “a pause in the fighting.”

It further held out the potential for an extension, claiming that an extra day would be added for each additional 10 captives available for release.

An Israeli official also claimed the deal is expected to see the release of 50 Israelis in groups of 12-13 people per day.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced that its joint mediation efforts, alongside Egypt and the US, resulted in “an agreement for a humanitarian pause.”

“The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension,” it said in a statement, adding that the number of those released as part of the swap “will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement.”

Israel waged the bloody war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm in the occupied territories in retaliation for the Tel Aviv regime’s incessant crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Since the start of the aggression, the Zionist regime has martyred 14,128 Palestinians, including 5,840 children and 3,920 women, and injured at least 33,000 others.

It has also imposed a “complete siege” on the coastal sliver, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.