Gaza truce to take effect at 8.30am local time on Sunday – Qatar

 

From 34m ago

07.25 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jan/18/middle-east-crisis-live-israel-says-737-prisoners-to-initially-be-freed-after-cabinet-approves-gaza-ceasefire

Gaza truce to take effect at 8.30am local time on Sunday – Qatar

The Gaza ceasefire will come into effect at 8.30am Gaza time (6.30am GMT) on Sunday 19 January, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson has just said on social media.

 

Majed Al Ansari’s post on X said:

 

We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources.

 

The time was “as coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators”, he said.

 

Updated at

07.52 GMT

1m ago

07.58 GMT

 

Under the ceasefire agreement, the three-stage truce starts with an initial six-week phase when hostages held by Hamas will be exchanged for prisoners and detainees jailed in Israel.

 

Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, men over 50 and ill and wounded captives, are to be freed in this phase, as Reuters reports.

 

In return, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinians from its jails. They include 737 male, female and teenaged prisoners, some of whom are members of Palestinian militant groups convicted of attacks that killed dozens of Israelis, as well as hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza in detention since the start of the war.

 

The Israeli justice ministry published their details early on Saturday, along with the ceasefire agreement, which said that 30 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each female hostage on Sunday.

 

Lead US negotiator Brett McGurk said that after Sunday’s hostage release, the deal called for four more female hostages to be released after seven days, followed by the release of three further hostages every seven days thereafter.