as agreed to free 150 women and children from among the hundreds of Palestinians detained since Oct. 7, when militants raced across the border from Gaza on a bloody rampage, killing 1,200 people and taking hundreds hostage, Israel says. Israel struck back with a massive military attack on Gaza. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, the Gaza Health Ministry says.
Details on when and how the hostages would be freed were not immediately revealed.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the deal a "step in the right direction" but said more must be done to permanently end the war.
"I welcome the agreement," Guterres said Wednesday in a social media post. "The U.N. will mobilize all its capacities to support the implementation and maximize positive impact on the humanitarian situation in Gaza."
But both sides stressed that the war was far from over. “We are at war, and we will continue the war,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said when announcing the deal late Tuesday.
'Self-silencing':For Palestinians, talking about Hamas comes with hazards
Developments:
∎ The European Union Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic says the halt in fighting must be used to flood Gaza with desperately needed aid. He said fewer than 50 aid trucks a day make it into Gaza, a number which he described as “woefully inadequate.”
∎ The Israel military says it has uncovered and destroyed about 400 tunnel shafts in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground offensive last month.
Israel announces cease-fire deal:Release of dozens of hostages imminent
Hope, but 'excruciating' wait for families of hostages
Abigail Edan, a 3-year-old Israeli American, was orphaned when her parents were killed by militants. Liz Hirsh Naftali, Edan’s great-aunt, told CNN about the “excruciating” wait to hear whether her great-niece is being released.
"We have spent the last seven weeks worrying, wondering, praying, hoping,” she said.
When the militants stormed into their Israeli community Oct. 7, Yarden Roman-Gat, 36,handed her 3-year-old daughter to her husband, hoping he could outrun the gunmen. He did − but Yarden has been missing ever since. Her cousin Maya told CNN the family now must wait and hope as the identities of those being released are revealed in coming days.
“My family, like all the other families, is going to go through a terrible week," Maya Roman said. "We don’t know if my cousin is going to be amongst those released in this round."
UN aid worker deaths set grim record
Four more U.N. humanitarian aid workers were killed in Gaza in the last few days, raising the total to 10 since the war began Oct. 7, the U.N. says. In total, 108 U.N. aid workers have been killed − the highest number in one conflict in U.N. history, the United Nations Relief and Workers Agency said in a statement Wednesday.
Additionally, at least 191 people seeking shelter in U.N. schools and other facilities have been killed, and about 800 wounded, the UNRWA says. Almost 1 million Palestinians are seeking protection in U.N. shelters, the agency says.
Terror victims group challenges hostage deal
The Israel-based Almagor Terror Victims Association says it will file court papers aimed at derailing the prisoner-swap agreement, the Times of Israel reports. The group wants a court order requiring the government to demonstrate that the deal does not endanger the lives of Israeli civilians or Israeli soldiers currently held by Hamas. It also wants the court to rule that the government can't discriminate "between blood and blood" by deciding that one captive will be released and another captive “will remain in the hands of murderers which are dripping with blood.”
Israeli courts have generally rejected similar petitions in the past, ruling its purview does not extend to matters of security and diplomacy.
Palestinians 'self-silence' views on Hamas amid war
Hamas made a name for itself with its ruthless takeover of Gaza in 2007, long before the violence that stunned the world last month. Yet many Palestinians are "self-silencing" how they really view Hamas. According to more than a dozen Palestinians inside and outside Gaza interviewed by USA TODAY, being candid about what they truly think about Hamas is more fraught than ever.
Fear of reprisals is only part of it. Many say they are more concerned about taking attention away from Israel's relentless bombings hat have pulverized civilian infrastructure and caused mass Palestinian casualties in Gaza.
"In this super-charged moment, the first question asked of every Palestinian is: Do you condemn the Hamas attacks?" said Omar Rahman, a U.S.-based fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, a think tank headquartered in Doha, Qatar. "They are offended by that, they think it misses the point." Read more here.
− Kim Hjelmgaard
Pope Francis meets with families of Israeli, Palestinian hostages
Pope Francis met Wednesday with family members of hostages seized by militants from Israel border villages during the deadly Oct. 7 rampage as well as relatives of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. The pope urged an end to the bloodshed and for both sides in the conflict "not be driven by the passions that wind up killing everyone."
The pope discussed the meetings, arranged before the hostage deal was announced, during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square where some in attendance waved Palestinian flags and small "genocide" posters. He cited a recurring theme: "I heard how they both suffer. Wars do that." But he said this conflict had "gone beyond war" to terrorism.
"Let us pray for the Palestinian people; let us pray for the Israeli people, so that peace may come," the pope said.
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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
