With the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestine militant group Hamas all set to take effect from Sunday, the latter has reportedly not submitted the first list of hostages who are to be released despite prior commitments.
Hamas, which missed the Saturday 4:30 pm deadline to submit the hostage list, had promised to provide the names soon. The reason cited is "technical" as Hamas communicates "physically via emissaries" and it "takes time to agree on the names and locations when the IDF planes are still above them."
The list will only come out after the approval of Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar.
However, the group is expected to provide the list within hours, the Saudi television channel Al Hadath reported on Saturday.
Despite the hitch, Israeli officials are confident that the plan will proceed as scheduled. However, there are concerns in Israel that Hamas might resort to "psychological warfare" and propaganda, with the agreement's first violation already occurring. "There is a high probability of delays and manipulations by Hamas, starting on day one," Ynet News quoted an Israeli official. He added that Hamas could subject Israeli families to psychological warfare."
The ceasefire agreement was set to start on Sunday at 8:30 am, with the security cabinet approving the pact early on Saturday. As per the plan, three hostages will be released today, with a total of 33 to return to Israel over the next 42 days. The release of the first three hostages is expected to start no earlier than 4 p.m. Sunday.
The hostages will be handed over to Israel under Red Cross mediation and in exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli prisons and transferred to the West Bank or East Jerusalem. As many as 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murder, will return home in the first phase.
Among the Palestinians to go free are 737 jailed detainees and security prisoners, some of whom are serving life sentences for murder. The Justice Ministry on Saturday published these names to allow petitions against their release to be submitted to the High Court. They include members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, along with women and children being held in Israeli jails.
