JERUSALEM – A four-day ceasefire was set to begin Friday in the war between Israel and Hamas, with hostages set to be released in exchange for prisoners. This is the first major reprieve in seven weeks of conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

After lengthy negotiations, deliberations and delays, the break was scheduled to begin at 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), silencing the weapons that have been raging since Hamas’ murderous attacks on Israel on October 7.

The start of the ceasefire will be followed by the release of an initial group of 13 hostages held in Gaza and an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, according to Qatari peace negotiators.

For the Gaza Strip’s more than two million residents, the deal represents a respite from the relentless Israeli bombing, which the Hamas government says has killed some 15,000 people in the Gaza Strip and displaced countless more.

TOO LATE

For many Palestinian families, the ceasefire comes too late.

“The living here are the ones who are dead,” Fida Zayed, whose 20-year-old son Udai was recently killed in an airstrike, told AFP.

“The last thing he said to me was that he was waiting for the ceasefire on Friday,” she told AFP. “He asked me to prepare him a feast of rice and chicken.”

“I hope that me and my children die here so that we don’t have to mourn each other,” she said.

Qatari officials said the “first group” of 13 hostages released would be women and children from the same families.

At least 50 hostages are expected to be released over the four days.

Waiting for them are teams of Israeli trauma experts and medics – along with specially trained soldiers who, in accordance with the guidelines, promise to ensure their safety and carry the child’s favorite food, be it pizza or chicken schnitzel.

AFP has confirmed the identities of 210 of the approximately 240 people abducted in Hamas cross-border attacks on military posts, communities and a desert music festival.

At least 35 of the hostages were children, 18 of whom were 10 years old or younger at the time of the Hamas attack.

Little is publicly known about the conditions in which the hostages were held.

“Given the barbaric nature of the attacks and hostage-taking, we can only prepare for the worst case scenario,” said Moty Cristal, a retired Israeli military official with experience in hostage negotiations.

Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons would also be released on Friday, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said, adding that a list of names had been approved without specifying the number.

The agreement included a “complete ceasefire with no attacks from the air or ground” and freedom of the skies from drones to “enable the release of the hostage in a safe environment,” Ansari said.

Hamas’ armed wing confirmed that the cessation of hostilities would begin at 7:00 a.m. under the agreement, which also aims to provide assistance to people in the Gaza Strip struggling to survive due to lack of food, water and fuel battle.

For every hostage, three Palestinian prisoners would be released, it said.

‘EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it was in contact with the hostages’ families after receiving “an initial list of names” of those to be released. It was not specified who was on it.

Israeli officials said about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 240 were taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attacks.

“We have been on an emotional roller coaster for 47 days and today is no different,” said Eyal Kalderon, a cousin of Ofer Kalderon, who is among the prisoners in Gaza.

Asked whether he expected kidnapped American toddler Abigail Mor Idan to be among the first hostages released, US President Joe Biden said: “I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

“MARATHON NEGOTIATIONS”

Palestinian prisoners will be released from three prisons in Israel and the occupied West Bank and then taken by bus to the Ofer military camp, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that their release was expected in the evening.

Most are from the West Bank, but five are from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Governments around the world have welcomed the agreement, with some expressing hope that it will lead to a permanent end to the war.

“This cannot be just a pause before the massacre begins again,” Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council.

However, Israeli officials say the ceasefire will only be temporary.

“We are not ending the war. We will continue until we are victorious,” Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, told troops he was visiting in Gaza.

Before the expected break, the fighting raged. Explosions were heard and heavy gray clouds hovered over the northern Gaza Strip, much of which was reduced to rubble.

Israeli airstrikes continued on targets in the southern city of Khan Yunis, sending red and yellow fireballs and huge columns of black smoke into the air.

“I think there are still about 20 people under the rubble,” said a Palestinian searching for survivors under a destroyed building east of Khan Yunis.

In Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabalia, a Palestinian doctor said at least 27 people were killed and 93 injured at a United Nations-run school where thousands of displaced civilians were taking shelter.

The doctor blamed it on an Israeli attack. There was no immediate word from the Israeli military.

Under pressure to back up its claims that Hamas had a command center beneath Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, the Israeli military escorted journalists to a tunnel shaft that soldiers said was part of a vast Hamas underground military network.

The army led reporters into underground facilities with air conditioning, a toilet and what looked like a kitchenette.

Hamas and medical personnel have denied that there is a command center beneath al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital.

Israeli forces have arrested Al-Shifa director Mohammad Abu Salmiya and other medical staff, another doctor told AFP on Thursday.

On Israel’s northern border, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said it had stepped up attacks from southern Lebanon, where Israeli bombings killed seven of its fighters, including members of an elite unit.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas began, deadly clashes across the border have killed 109 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, and nine people in Israel, most of them soldiers, raising fears of a wider conflict .