Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli military not to begin the ceasefire in Gaza, scheduled to start at 8:30am (11:30am PKT), until Hamas issued the names of the hostages to be released, his office said, Reuters reports.
“The prime minister instructed the IDF that the ceasefire, which is supposed to go into effect at 8:30am, will not begin until Israel has the list of released abductees that Hamas has pledged to provide,” his office said in a statement.
The ceasefire’s first stage will last six weeks, during which 33 of the remaining 98 hostages — women, children, men over 50, the ill and wounded — will be released in return for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
They include 737 male, female and teen-aged prisoners, some of whom are members of 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 onslaught.
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