Qatar says cease-fire between Israel and Hamas to begin Friday morning

A temporary cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel is expected to take effect on Friday, although the process leading up to that agreement has been plagued by false-starts and delays. Under the terms, Israel and Hamas agree to a four-day pause in military activities while both sides facilitate an exchange of prisoners for hostages. Qatar, the United States, and Egypt helped broker the deal after weeks of indirect negotiations.

What are the terms of the deal? Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Thursday that the cease-fire will begin at 7 a.m. local time on Friday. Qatar had previously said that Hamas would release 50 hostages in exchange for 150 prisoners held by Israel. Those released on both sides would be mainly women and children. The plan is for Hamas to release the hostages in groups throughout the cease-fire, beginning with 13 women and children Friday afternoon. After the first group is released, Israel is expected to free their first group of prisoners in return. Israel also said that they would extend the truce by a day for every 10 additional hostages released.

Dig deeper: Listen to Nick Eicher and Mary Reichard’s discussion with reporter Seth Frantzman on The World and Everything in It podcast about Israel’s war in Gaza.