A hostage exchange for Prisoners deal has been approved by both Israel and Hamas. This evening Hamas will provide a list of 10-12 names of hostages that will be released to the Red Cross tomorrow morning. The Red Cross will hand them over to the IDF. After they are in Israeli custody, the IDF will temporarily halt attacks on Hamas in Gaza for the day. For each hostage received, Israel will send 3 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons back to Gaza. This series of events will be repeated 4 times. Prisoners and hostages will all be women or children. The Palestinian prisoners will not include anyone who has killed an Israeli. All hostages in this exchange must be Israeli citizens, but may also hold dual citizenship in another country.
There are more details, and the media will probably provide them.
On the Israeli side, drone recon flights over the Southern Gaza strip will be suspended completely, and over the Northern sector, for a period of 6 hours each day during the transfers. Hamas demanded this in order to conceal the locations from which they are moving hostages (and any other movements of their forces, as well). The IDF will resume fighting 24 hours after the receipt of the hostages on the last day, or upon any attack by or breach of conditions by Hamas.
Bottom line: Israel does NOT trust Hamas at all (with good reason), and Hamas pretends not to trust Israel. But both sides are in agreement that further such exchanges could take place in the future, differing in some details such as the ages and gender of the hostages, and whether or not the hostage was on active duty with the IDF.
Some things to watch for: Hamas claims that they are not holding some hostages. It is true that some may have been taken by terrorists from other groups, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But any story about Hamas not knowing their whereabouts should be treated as Fake News. Hamas does, and has in the past; manipulate reports coming from their sources. Any delay or discrepancy in providing lists of hostages to be released is an open breach of the exchange conditions. Israel is insistent that eventually ALL hostages must be released. This is simply in compliance with international humanitarian law as I have pointed out before. Hamas claims that any differentiation, such as those mentioned in the previous paragraph, make a difference is false. Hamas cannot alter those laws unilaterally to suit its own interests.
With regard to non-Israeli hostages such as Thai or Filipino workers, or Nepalese students who were taken captive because they happened to be in Israel, Hamas should release them immediately and unconditionally. I even believe that such action could be used as a condition for providing ‘humanitarian aid”. But don’t expect the media, or any international organizations or diplomats to mention it.
Wetherhorn 