Key Points
- A temporary truce agreed by Israel and Hamas is due to begin on Friday.
- Israel says the truce could last beyond the initial four days as long as Hamas free at least 10 hostages per day.
- Both sides have said they will go back to fighting once the truce is over.
Israel and Hamas are set to start a four-day truce with a group of 13 Israeli women and child , mediators in Qatar said.
Israel launched its devastating war in Gaza after gunmen from Hamas burst across the border fence, , according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, about 40 per cent of them children, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel said on Thursday it had detained the head of Gaza's biggest hospital al-Shifa for questioning over his role in what it said was the hospital's use as a Hamas command centre.
Hamas condemned the arrest of al-Shifa director Muhammad Abu Salamiya and other doctors it said were trying to evacuate remaining patients and wounded from the facility.
Here's what we know about the truce.
When does the deal start?
The agreement - the first in a brutal, nearly seven-week-old war - would begin on Friday at 7am local time (10pm AEDT) and involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in the Qatari capital Doha.
It was expected Palestinians would be released from Israeli jail, he told reporters. "We all hope that this truce will lead to a chance to start a wider work to achieve a permanent truce," he said.
The spokesperson said the lists of all civilians that would be released from Gaza had been agreed and said Qatar hoped to negotiate a subsequent agreement to release additional hostages from Gaza by the fourth day of the truce.
What are the details of the deal?
Under the Hamas-Israel deal, 50 women and children under the age of 19 taken hostage could be freed in return for 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention.
The 50 hostages are expected to be released in batches, probably about a dozen a day, during the four-day ceasefire.
Those involved in the deal have described the break in hostilities as "a humanitarian pause". The pause will be extended by a day for each additional batch of 10 hostages released, Israel said in a statement.
How will it be implemented?
The (ICRC) will work in Gaza to facilitate the release of the hostages, Qatar said.
The hostages are expected to be transported through Egypt, the only country apart from Israel to share a border with Gaza.
During the truce, trucks loaded with aid and fuel are expected to cross into Gaza, where 2.3 million people have been running out of food and many hospitals have shut down in part because they no longer have fuel for their generators.
A man and a child walk past portraits of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the 7 October attack by Hamas, in Tel Aviv on 21 November. Source: Getty / Ahmad Gharabli
An operations room in Doha will monitor the truce and the release of hostages and has direct lines of communication with Israel, the Hamas political office in Doha and ICRC, Qatar's foreign ministry said.
Who are the hostages being released?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Thursday that Israel had received an initial list of hostages to be released from Gaza.
Among the 50 women and children under the age of 19 being released by Hamas are three US citizens, including a girl who turns four on Friday, a US official said.
In addition to Israeli civilians and soldiers taken on 7 October, more than half the roughly 240 hostages are foreign and dual nationals from about 40 countries including Argentina, Britain, Chile, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Thailand and the US, Israel's government has said.
Who are the Palestinians being freed and why were they held?
Israel has provided a list of about 300 Palestinian prisoners who might be released - double the number of women and minors it has agreed to be freed at first - and suggested it expects more than 50 hostages to be released under the deal.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society said that as of Wednesday, 7,200 prisoners were being held by Israel, among them 88 women and 250 children 17 and under.
Most on the list of 300 are from the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem and were held for incidents such as attempted stabbings, hurling stones at Israeli soldiers, making explosives, damaging property and having contacts with hostile organisations.
None are accused of murder. Many were held under administrative detention, meaning they were held without trial.
Who negotiated the deal?
Qatar played a major mediation role.
Hamas has a political office in Doha and the has kept channels of communication open with Israel, even though unlike some other Gulf Arab states it has not normalised ties with Israel.
The US also played a crucial role, with President Joe Biden holding calls with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Netanyahu in the weeks leading up to the deal.
Egypt, the first Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel was also involved.
Why has it taken so long to negotiate?
The deal was announced 46 days after the start of the Hamas-Israel war, one of the most fierce conflicts to erupt between the two sides.
Amid such ferocious fighting, the large number of hostages and Israel's stated determination to wipe out Hamas in Gaza, mediating even a temporary deal, like this one, proved far more challenging than in previous conflicts.
The initial negotiations for a deal between Israel and Hamas began within days of the 7 October attack but progress was slow.
This was partly because communications between the warring sides had to go via Doha or Cairo and back for every detail hammered out, such as securing a full list from Hamas for those to be released, US officials said.
Even with a deal in place, the ceasefire is temporary.
The significant escalation is the latest boiling point in a long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, gaining power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Hamas’s stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. Some countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group. Other countries voted against a UN resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety, as a terrorist organisation.
Hamas has said throughout the truce its "fingers remain on the trigger". Israel has said the conflict will continue until all the hostages are freed and Hamas is eliminated.
In 2014, when Israel last launched a major land invasion in Gaza, it took 49 days for both sides to implement a ceasefire deal, but that brought major fighting to an end for several years.
