Hostage deal back on after delay

Aid row between Hamas, Israel settled following Qatar and Egypt’s mediation

GAZA/JERUSALEM:

A Gaza hostage release deal on Saturday night was back on track after a row over aid supplies to the north of the besieged enclave was resolved following mediation by Qatar and Egypt.

A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomacy said Hamas would continue with the four-day truce agreed with Israel, the first break in fighting in seven weeks of war. "After a delay, obstacles to release of prisoners were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides, and 39 Palestinian civilians will be released tonight, while 13 Israeli hostages will leave Gaza in addition to 7 foreigners," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said on social media.

Read The secret negotiations that led to the Gaza hostages deal

Earlier, Hamas said it was delaying Saturday's scheduled second round of hostage releases until Israel met conditions including committing to let aid trucks into northern Gaza. Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan said only 65 of 340 aid trucks that had entered Gaza since Friday had reached northern Gaza that was "less than half of what Israel agreed on”.

Al-Qassam Brigades also said Israel had failed to respect the terms of the Palestinian prisoner releases.
Qadura Fares, the Palestinian commissioner for prisoners, said Israel had not released detainees by seniority, as was expected. Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a member of Israel's security cabinet, told Channel 13 News that his country was "abiding by the deal" with Hamas that Qatar had mediated.

Israel has said 50 trucks with food, water, shelter equipment and medical supplies had been deployed to northern Gaza under UN supervision -- the first significant aid delivery there since the start of the war.
The row over the truce dented hopes of a smooth second day of hostage and prisoner releases after 13 Israeli women and children were freed by Hamas on Friday.

Read more Israel-Hamas truce begins, hostages to be released

Some 39 Palestinian women and teenagers were released from Israeli jails. Israeli army spokesperson Olivier Rafowicz told France’s BFM TV that his country was strictly honouring the terms of the truce, adding that the military had carried out no attacks or offensive operations in Gaza on Saturday.

"This situation is obviously being managed at the highest level in Israel,” he added. The ceasefire has also been able to deliver 34,078 gallons of fuel – just over 10% of the daily pre-war volume – as well as cooking gas.

In the southern city of Khan Younis on Saturday morning, a long line of people with fuel cans and other containers waited outside a filling station hoping to get some of the newly delivered fuel.