A long-awaited ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war has come into effect almost three hours late after the Israeli government delayed the start of the agreement when Hamas failed to provide a list of the hostages set for release.
Hamas officials late on Sunday published the names of three Israeli hostages they were set to release – Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari – with Israel announcing a short time later the ceasefire would begin at 8.15pm AEDT.
Set for release are hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher.
The release of the three hostages held by Hamas would take place at 1am on Monday AEDT, the Israeli prime minister’s office said, and four other living female hostages would be freed in seven days.
The ceasefire had been due to come into effect at 5.30pm AEDT but at that time, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, declared that Israel would continue striking military targets in Gaza until Hamas handed over the names of the hostages on the list for release. His comments echoed an earlier statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
While there was a broad belief that it was still in both sides’ interests to pursue a truce, the setback raised doubts about the future of the complicated three-phase ceasefire agreement and whether it can bring an end to a war that has continued for 15 months at a devastatingly high cost to Gaza’s residents.
Hamas blamed the delay in handing over the names on “technical field reasons”, saying in a statement that it was committed to the ceasefire deal announced last week. A Palestinian official familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delay had occurred because mediators had asked for 48 hours of “calm” before the ceasefire’s implementation, but continued Israeli strikes right up until the deadline had made it difficult to send the list.
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