Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States, Israel, the European Union, Canada, and others.

In return for 150 Palestinians detained in Israel, the Israeli government and Hamas agreed to a four-day ceasefire on Wednesday. This would also permit the entrance of humanitarian supplies into the beleaguered enclave and the release of 50 hostages held in Gaza.

For days, representatives of the US, Israel, Hamas, and Qatar, which has been mediating the talks, have claimed that a settlement was almost certain.

Israeli counts indicate that Hamas killed 1,200 people on October 7 when its members stormed into Israel, taking more than 200 captives.

According to a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 50 women and children will be freed over the course of four days, during which time there would be no fighting.

It said that the break would be prolonged by one day for every ten more hostages freed, but it made no mention of the release of Palestinian detainees in return.

"The government of Israel is determined to release all of the captives. After hours of closed-door debate, the statement was released: "Tonight, it approved the proposed deal as a first stage to achieving this goal."

150 Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons will be exchanged for the 50 hostages, according to Hamas. Hamas announced that hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian, medical, and fuel help would be able to enter Gaza as a result of the ceasefire agreement.

It also said that Israel has promised not to launch an assault or detain anybody in any area of Gaza during the ceasefire.

According to Gazan officials, the agreement marks the first cease-fire in a conflict in which Israeli bombing has destroyed large areas of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, killed 13,300 civilians in the small, densely populated enclave, and left almost two-thirds of its 2.3 million residents homeless.

Netanyahu discussed the agreement with his military cabinet and broader national security cabinet on Tuesday before convening with his whole administration.

Prior to the accord's official announcement, Netanyahu claimed that US President Joe Biden's involvement had improved the preliminary agreement by adding additional captives and removing concessions.

Netanyahu stated that Israel's overarching goal remained unchanged.

"We are at war, and we won't stop fighting until we accomplish all of our objectives. In an audio message played at the beginning of the government meeting, he stated his goals: "to destroy Hamas, return all our hostages, and make sure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel."

Three Americans are anticipated to be freed from captive, according to a senior US official. Among them is a three-year-old child whose parents perished in Hamas's assault on October 7.

According to Israeli media, including Channel 12 News, the first captive release is scheduled for this Thursday. According to sources, the agreement's implementation would be delayed for a whole day in order to allow Israeli people to petition the Supreme Court to prevent the release of Palestinian detainees.

So far, Hamas has only freed four hostages: on October 20, US citizens Judith Raanan, 59, and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan were freed on the pretext of "humanitarian reasons," and on October 23, two Israeli ladies, Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, were freed.

Islamic Jihad, the militant Palestinian organization that took part in the assault on October 7 with Hamas, said late on Tuesday that one of the Israeli captives it had been holding since the bombings on October 7 had passed away.

Al Quds Brigades said on its Telegram channel, "We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy was stalling and this led to her death."

Evacuation orders for the hospital

The ground warfare continued as attention was drawn to the hostage release agreement. The Israeli military gave the order to evacuate the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City, according to Mounir Al-Barsh, director general of the health ministry in Gaza, who spoke with Al Jazeera TV. Israel said that militants were based out of the site and that they would take action against them in four hours.

The fighting and a lack of essential supplies have shut down hospitals, including the largest hospital in Gaza, Al Shifa. Israel alleges that Hamas hides militants and military command stations inside its borders; both Hamas and hospital personnel refute this assertion.

Additionally, Israel said on Tuesday that its troops had surrounded the Jabalia refugee camp, which is a crowded urban expansion of Gaza City and the site of Hamas's resistance against Israeli armoured forces on the advance.

An Israeli airstrike on a section of Jabalia resulted in 33 fatalities and several injuries, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The 1948 conflict that resulted in the founding of Israel uprooted most Palestinians in Gaza, according to the UN, and most of them are classified as refugees.

According to Hamas-affiliated media in southern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in the city of Khan Younis resulted in 10 fatalities and 22 injuries.

Reuters was unable to confirm the reports of violence right away on either side.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.