Key takeaways:
- Israel and Hamas have agreed to a four-day cease-fire, set to begin on Thursday.
- The hostage-for-prisoner swap between the two sides has been delayed until at least Friday.
- The cease-fire and prisoner swap are part of a larger effort to bring peace to the region.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to a four-day cease-fire, which was set to begin on Thursday. However, a planned hostage-for-prisoner swap between the two sides has been delayed until at least Friday, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser.
The adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, said that the release of prisoners would begin according to the original agreement between the parties, but not before Friday. He did not provide an explanation for the delay. Netanyahu’s office did not respond to questions about the delay.
The cease-fire and prisoner swap are part of a larger effort to bring peace to the region. Around 70% of the Palestinians in Gaza are refugees and their descendants from the 1948 Nakba, which saw 700,000 people flee their homes during a conflict that forged the creation of Israel itself.
Netanyahu has spoken out against the idea of forcibly resettling Palestinians, saying in a Nov. 10 speech, “We don’t seek to govern Gaza.” The people of Gaza have also expressed their opposition to the idea, with one resident saying, “The people here will not leave their land to travel to another country — they will not live the Nakba again.”
It is unclear when the cease-fire will begin, but it is expected to bring much-needed relief to the region. The prisoner swap is also expected to bring some closure to the families of those affected.
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