Israeli and US officials have said a four-day Gaza truce and hostage release will not start until at least Friday, thwarting the hopes of families that some captives would be freed on Thursday.
As the wait continued, Khan Younis in southern Gaza was hit by Israeli airstrikes and artillery in at least two waves early on Thursday, Palestinian media reported.
Tensions also rose on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon early Thursday, after Hezbollah said five fighters, including the son of the head of the militant group’s parliamentary bloc, had been killed.
Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated the release of at least 50 Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas was on track, but would not happen until Friday at the earliest.
“The contacts on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly,” he said in a statement. “The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.”
Multiple news outlets later cited anonymous Israeli officials as saying that the halt in fighting would also not begin on Thursday, as had been widely expected.
White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson said final logistical details for the release were being worked out. “That is on track and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning,” Watson said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the delay. The deal had been expected to come into force from Thursday. An Egyptian security source told Reuters that mediators had sought a start time of 10am.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, citing an unidentified Israeli official, reported there was a 24-hour delay because the agreement was not signed by Hamas and mediator Qatar. The official said they were optimistic the agreement would be carried out once it was signed.
“No one said there would be a release tomorrow except the media … We had to make it clear that no release is planned before Friday, because of the uncertainty that hostages’ families are facing,” Kan quoted a source in Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as saying.
The delay is a blow to families desperate to see their loved ones return home, and to the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have been suffering relentless Israeli bombardments as well as food, water and energy shortages.
The complex and carefully choreographed deal saw Israel and Hamas militants agree a four-day truce, during which at least 50 of the hostages taken in the deadly 7 October attacks would be released.
Three Americans, including three-year-old Abigail Mor Idan, were among the hostages earmarked for release, according to US officials.
In turn, Israel would release at least 150 Palestinian women and children being held in Israeli jails and allow more humanitarian aid into the coastal territory after weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling siege.
For every 10 additional hostages released, there would be an extra day’s “pause” in fighting, an Israeli government document said.
An estimated 240 hostages were taken by Hamas and other Palestinian gunmen during bloody raids into Israel on 7 October that are believed to have killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
The shock attack prompted an Israeli offensive into Hamas-run Gaza, which authorities there say has killed more than 14,000 people. Most casualties on both sides are said to be civilians, although exact tolls can not be independently verified.
Netanyahu has backed the agreement with Hamas – brokered by Qatar, the US and Egypt – but vowed it will be temporary and will not end the campaign to destroy Hamas. “We are winning and will continue to fight until absolute victory,” he said on Wednesday, vowing to secure Israel from threats emanating from Gaza and Lebanon, home to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants.
The Red Cross will be able to visit any remaining hostages in Gaza, he said.
In southern Lebanon, Abbas Raad, son of Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, was “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”, the group said in a statement – the phrase it has been using to announce the death of its members due to Israeli fire since the war started on 7 October.
A source close to the family told Agence France-Presse that his son and others were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Beit Yahun, southern Lebanon.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen almost daily exchanges of fire, raising fears the Gaza war fuel a broader conflagration.
Israel’s army said in statements on Wednesday evening that it had struck a number of Hezbollah targets, including a “terrorist cell” and infrastructure.
In Washington, the White House said Joe Biden had spoken to Netanyahu on Wednesday and “emphasised the importance of maintaining calm along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank”. The White House has pressed Israel not to escalate clashes with Hezbollah, for fear of sparking a war that could drag in US and Iranian forces.
Families on both sides were grappling with the lack of clarity over how the releases would unfold.
“We don’t know who will get out because Hamas will release the names every evening of those who will get out the next day,” said Gilad Korngold, whose son and daughter-in-law are being held in Gaza along with their two children and other relatives.
Israel’s list of eligible Palestinian prisoners included 123 detainees under 18 and 33 women, among them Shrouq Dwayyat, convicted of attempted murder in a 2015 knife attack. “I had hoped that she would come out in a deal,” her mother, Sameera Dwayyat, said, but added that her relief was tempered by “great pain in my heart” over the dead children in Gaza.
Israel appeared to be pushing on with its offensive on Wednesday with more than 140 Palestinians – including 50 from one family – reportedly killed across the strip.
Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight on Wednesday as houses were targeted in central Gaza. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north.
Riyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, said during a visit to London that 52 of the victims at Jabaliya were from the same Qadoura family. “I have the list of the names, 52 of them. They were wiped out completely, from grandfather to grandchildren,” he said.
Meanwhile at Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, Israeli soldiers escorted journalists to a tunnel shaft they said was part of a vast underground network used by Hamas for military purposes – a claim Hamas denies.
Israeli forces raided the facility last week alleging that Hamas used it as a command centre and identifying it as a key target despite international outcry.
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report