Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, says a “logistical delay” in getting the names of the captives due to be released was the reason for the delayed implementation of the ceasefire.

“In November 2023, we had an exchange of similar parameters taking place and therefore we are not new to the difficulties of the last-minute exchange of information, including the names of prisoners and captives to be exchanged,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Within the operations of maintaining the ceasefire and implementing the deal, there are a lot of logistical difficulties that have to do with the situation on the ground,” he added.

“Communication and movement in Gaza is not easy and therefore it takes sometimes more time than expected, but thankfully we were able to resolve it and now we have the ceasefire in place and aid starting to go into Gaza.”

Al-Ansari also expressed confidence that the captive-and-prisoner exchange later today will be “successful”. He added that the mediators’ operations room is in Egypt and is “working right now as we speak on making sure that the exchange today happens seamlessly.”