Fighting rages on ahead of expected 4-day Israel-Hamas truce

Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas will start a four-day truce on Friday morning witha first group of 13 Israeli women and child hostages released later that day, mediators in Qatar said.

World powers gave the news a cautious welcome. But fighting raged on as the hours counted down to the planned start of the first break in a brutal, near seven-week-old war. Both sides also signalled the pause would be temporary and they were ready to expand operations afterwards.

The truceis set tobegin at 7 a.m. local time and involve a comprehensive ceasefire in north and south Gaza, Qatar's Foreign Ministry said.

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Additional aid would start flowing into Gaza and the first hostages, including elderly women, would be freed at 4 p.m., with the total number rising to 50 over the four days, ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said in the Qatari capital Doha.

It was expected Palestinians would be released from Israeli jail, he told reporters. "We all hope that this truce will lead to a chance to start a wider work to achieve a permanent truce."

Hamas which had been expected to declare a truce with Israel a day earlier on Thursday only for negotiations to drag on confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities from its forces would cease.

But Abu Ubaida, a spokesperson forHamas' armed wing, later referred to "this temporary truce" in a video message that called for an "escalation of the confrontation with (Israel) on all resistance fronts," including the Israeli-occupied West Bank where violence has surged since the Gaza war erupted.

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Israel's military said its troops would stay behind a ceasefire line inside Gaza, without giving details of its position.

"These will be complicated days and nothing is certain... Even during this process there could be changes," Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

"Control over northern Gaza is the first step of a long war, and we are preparing for the next stages," he added. Israel had received an initial list of hostages to be freed and was in touch with families, the prime minister's office said.

West Bank Palestinians could be released

Those in prison in Israel who could be released include many teenage boys detained during a wave of violence in the West Bank in 2022 or 2023 and charged with offences such as stone-throwing or disturbing public order, according to a list of eligible prisoners published by Israel's Justice Ministry. Israel currently holds nearly 7,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of security offences.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after gunmen from Hamas burst across the border fence on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, around 40 per cent of them children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory.However they have said it has become increasingly difficult to keep an up-to-date tally as the health service has buckled under the Israeli bombardment.

"People are exhausted and are losing hope in humanity," UNPalestinian refugee agency UNRWA's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said after a visit to Gaza, referring to "unspeakable suffering" in the enclave.

"They need respite, they deserve to sleep without being anxious about whether they will make it through the night. This is the bare minimum anyone should be able to have."

The delay to the start of the truce meant another day of worry for Israeli relatives of the hostages who say they still know nothing about the fate of missing loved ones, and of fear for Palestinian families trapped inside the Gaza combat zone.

"We need to know they are alive, if they're OK. It's the minimum," said Gilad Korngold, desperate for any information about the fate of seven of his family members, including his three-year-old granddaughter, believed to be among the hostages.

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As the Israel-Hamas war continues, there has been an unmistakable upheaval in the art world. Writers Maris Kreizman, Josh Gondelman and Jen Sookfong Lee are grappling with the consequences of speaking up. They join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud and arts reporter Josh OKane to share their thoughts on the cancelled exhibits, protests, and the people whove lost jobs and opportunities for sharing their points of view and what's at stake within our cultural institutions.

Al-Shifa doctor in Israeli custody

Ahead of the ceasefire, fighting continued at even greater than normal intensity, with Israeli jets hitting more than 300 targets and troops engaged in heavy fighting around Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza City.

An army spokesman said operations would continue until troops received the order to stop.

Earlier, from across the border fence in Israel, clouds of smoke could be seen billowing above northern Gaza's war zone accompanied by the sounds of heavy gunfire and booming explosions.

In Rafah, on the strip's southern edge, residents combed with bare hands through the ruins of a house smashed in a giant crater. A grey-bearded man wailed amid the shattered masonry while another man lay a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. Neighbour Khaled Hamad told Reuters it was the home of a primary school teacher, killed inside with his children.

Palestinian media reported at least 15 people killed in airstrikes on Khan Younis, Gaza's main southern city. Reuters could not immediately verify the toll there.

In a post on X, Doctors Without Borders said the city's Nasser hospital, where it treats burn patients and supports the emergency room, was overflowing with patients and families sheltering in the building.

Israel said its strikes in the past day had hit "military command centres, underground terror tunnels, weapon storage facilities, weapon manufacturing sites, and anti-tank missile launch posts." It released video of troops on foot patrol in rutted streets surrounded by bombed-out ruins.

Israel said on Thursday it had detained the head of Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, for questioning over his role in what it said was the hospital's use as a Hamas command centre.

Hamas condemned the arrest of Al-Shifa director Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiahand other doctors it said were trying to evacuate remaining patients and wounded from the facility.

International alarm has focused onthe fate of the hospitals, especially in Gaza's northern half, where all medical facilities have ceased functioning with patients, staff and displaced people trapped inside.

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Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan of the organization Gaza Medic Voicestold CBC News Network on Thursday he was dismayed by the development.

"I cannot tell you how angry and how upset I am to hear of this happening," he said. "Every day I cannot imagine how things are getting worse, but they are."