Israel reneges on ceasefire promise, ceasefire will not be implemented before Friday

A hostage exchange deal between Israel and the Hamas militant group will be postponed until Friday, a senior Israeli official has said. The arrangement was originally set to begin on Thursday, with Israeli forces expected to pause operations for four days to allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israeli National Security Council Director Tzachi Hanegbi announced the delay in a statement on Wednesday, stressing that the negotiations were still underway and that the deal was set to be finalized.

“The contacts on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly. The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday,” Hanegbi said.

More than 200 people were taken hostage by Hamas during the group’s October 7 attack on Israel, which left some 1,200 people dead. Some of the captives are foreign nationals, including citizens of the US, Thailand, Britain, France, Argentina, Germany, Chile, Spain and Portugal, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has launched weeks of airstrikes on Gaza and escalated a ground raid on the territory, killing more than 12,000 Palestinians, including over 5,000 children, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave.

For the war going on between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas since October 7, both the sides reached an agreement yesterday i.e. Wednesday, November 22 and called off the war for 4 days from today i.e. Thursday, November 23.

It was decided to implement ceasefire from today in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli government had also given its consent to this. But now Israel has gone back on its promise and has refused to implement ceasefire from today.

An Israeli government official has given a statement informing that the 4-day pause and ceasefire on this war will not come into effect before Friday, November 24. The Israeli government official also made it clear that the hostages will not be released before Friday.