A four-day cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas will begin Friday morning, Qatar said, a day later than originally announced, as negotiators worked out final details of the deal, which is to lead to the release of dozens of hostages held by militants and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The diplomatic breakthrough promised some relief for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment, as well as families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

The cease-fire was originally set to begin Thursday morning, but it appeared to hit a snag the night before when Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, announced a one-day delay without providing a reason.

On Thursday, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari announced the cease-fire will start at 7 a.m. local time Friday (5 a.m. GMT.)

He said the two sides had exchanged lists of those to be released, and the first group of 13 women and children held by Hamas would be freed Friday afternoon. He did not say how many Palestinian prisoners would be freed, but officials have said three would be freed for every hostage.

Increased aid for Palestinians will start to enter Gaza “as soon as possible,” al-Ansari said. The hope is that the “momentum” from this deal will lead to an “end to this violence," he told reporters.

RISING TOLL IN GAZA

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, meanwhile, resumed its detailed count of Palestinian casualties from the war, saying over 13,300 have been killed. The new numbers were not fully broken down, but women and minors have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead in past tallies.

The figures do not include updated numbers from hospitals in the north, where services and communication largely broke down earlier this month. The ministry says some 6,000 people have been reported missing, feared buried under rubble.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death tolls. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, without presenting evidence for its count.

The ministry had stopped publishing casualty counts as of Nov. 11, saying it had lost the ability to do so because of the collapse of the health sector in the north.

NETANYAHU SAYS TRUCE WON’T END WAR

The truce agreement raised hopes of eventually winding down the war, which has leveled vast swaths of Gaza, fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East.

Air-raid sirens sounded across northern Israel on Thursday as Hezbollah said it fired 48 Katyusha rockets from southern Lebanon. The barrage came after an Israeli strike killed five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of the head of the group’s parliamentary bloc.

The Israeli military said it was striking the sources of the launches. Israel and Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war in 2006, have repeatedly traded fire across the border since the war in Gaza broke out.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the war after the truce expires to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities, end its 16-year rule in Gaza and return all the estimated 240 captives held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups.

“We will continue it until we achieve all our goals,” Netanyahu said, adding that he had delivered the same message in a phone call to U.S. President Joe Biden. Washington has provided extensive military and diplomatic support to Israel since the start of the war.

The delay in implementing the cease-fire dismayed uprooted Palestinians in Gaza, who hope to use the few days of quiet to visit homes they had fled — or at least the wreckage of them — and reconnect with families. More than 1.7 million people, three-fourths of Gaza’s population, have been displaced in the war.

“We’d been waiting and hoping since yesterday,” said Aya Hamad, who is sheltering at a hospital in the central city of Deir al Balah. “We wanted to go home to get a change of clothes for our children, even though we know our homes have been bombed … It’s all for nothing.”

Israeli troops hold much of northern Gaza and say they have dismantled tunnels and much of Hamas’ infrastructure there. Israeli forces Wednesday revealed what they said was a major Hamas hideout in a tunnel beneath Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.

The territory’s largest medical center has been at the heart of a fierce battle of narratives over both sides’ allegedly reckless endangerment of civilians. Hamas and hospital staff deny Israeli allegations that Shifa was used as a militant command center.

The military said Thursday it detained Shifa's director, Mohammed Abu Selmia, for questioning over his involvement in what it called “extensive” Hamas activities in the hospital. Gaza’s Health Ministry called on international bodies to intervene and said it would no longer cooperate with the World Health Organization in evacuating hospitals.

Earlier Thursday, Israel ordered the full evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in the north, Dr. Munir al-Boursh, a Health Ministry official inside the facility, told Al Jazeera.

Fighting has raged outside the hospital for days, and hundreds of people have already been evacuated to the south. It was unclear if the arrest of Abu Selmia would affect those efforts.

Israeli military spokesman Col. Richard Hecht said combat operations would continue “until we are given the order to hold our fire.”

Israeli troops have surrounded the Jabaliya refugee camp and called on any residents inside to evacuate during a three-hour window Thursday, he said. The military has said it is pursuing Hamas fighters in Jabaliya, a dense urban district adjacent to Gaza City that has come under intense bombardment for weeks.

Israel has threatened to extend its invasion to southern Gaza, where most of the territory’s population is now located. More than 1 million people, including hundreds of thousands who fled the north, have crammed into overflowing U.N.-run shelters with dwindling food, water and basic supplies.

For Hamas, the cease-fire would provide an opportunity to regroup after weeks of apparently heavy losses. Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar, who is believed to be alive and in hiding in Gaza, is likely to claim the release of Palestinian prisoners as a major achievement and declare victory if the war ends.

HOSTAGES TO BE FREED IN STAGES

Under the truce deal, 50 hostages are supposed to be freed in stages, in exchange for the release of what Hamas said would be 150 Palestinian prisoners. Women and children would be released first, and Israel said the truce would be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed.

The return of hostages could lift spirits in Israel, where their plight has gripped the country. Families of the hostages have staged mass demonstrations to pressure the government to bring them home. Netanyahu’s office said it notified the families of hostages listed for release Friday.

Hamas said 200 trucks a day will enter Gaza carrying aid. Qatar said the aid will include fuel, but has given no details on quantities.

Israel cut off all imports at the start of the war, except for a trickle of food, water and medical supplies allowed in from Egypt. The lack of fuel has caused a territory-wide blackout, leaving homes and hospitals reliant on faltering generators.

Israel’s Justice Ministry published a list of 300 prisoners eligible to be released, mainly teenagers detained over the past year for rock-throwing and other minor offenses.

The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as soldiers, for whom Hamas is expected to demand a large number of high-profile prisoners.

Terrible Choices and Deep Distrust: The Path to the Hostage Deal.

When it was all said and done, the deal to release some of the hostages held by Hamas came down to two critical phone calls ultimately forcing each side to make a tough concession.

The Israelis were insisting that it was not enough to free just 50 of the roughly 240 hostages. They had to have more, they said. At that point, President Joe Biden had to talk Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel into accepting what was on the table and then keep working to recover the rest.

As for Hamas, according to senior administration officials, its leaders were demanding that the pause in fighting incorporated into the agreement last five days, even though the Israelis refused to agree to more than four. Biden told the emir of Qatar, who was serving as the intermediary with Hamas, that four was all they would get for now.

The path to the hostage deal was painful and painstaking, one marked by fitful progress, deep mistrust, terrible choices and moments when the whole thing was on the verge of unraveling. Neither side got exactly what it wanted. But if the agreement is carried out successfully over the next few days — and that is still an important if — it could serve as a template for further negotiations to free more of the hostages and extend the temporary cease-fire.

“Last night’s deal is a testament to the tireless diplomacy and determination of many dedicated individuals across the United States government to bring Americans home,” Biden said Wednesday on X, the platform formerly called Twitter. “Now, it’s important that all aspects are fully implemented.”

This account is based on senior Biden administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid disrupting the channels of communication.

The effort to free the hostages extends back to the hours following the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, when Hamas gunmen killed about 1,200 people and captured 240.

Shortly after the attack, the government of Qatar, a small Gulf emirate that hosts some Hamas leaders but maintains close relations with the United States, approached the White House with information about the hostages and suggested the possibility of a deal to win their release. The Qataris asked that a small group of U.S. officials work secretly with them and the Israelis.

Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, directed Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East coordinator, and Joshua Geltzer, then the deputy homeland security adviser who has since become the top lawyer for the National Security Council, to take the lead. To preserve secrecy, other agencies were kept in the dark about the initiative.

McGurk, who has wide contacts in the region, held early morning phone calls each day with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, then briefed Sullivan, who kept Biden informed. Sullivan stayed in touch with Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi, two of Netanyahu’s closest advisers.

The issue was personal for Biden, who met with families of Americans who were believed to be among the hostages on a Zoom call Oct. 13. Biden extended the scheduled time for the call so each family would have a chance to talk about their missing loved ones. Administration officials who were in the Oval Office or on the line described it as one of the most agonizing moments of the Biden presidency.

On Oct. 23, the White House negotiations with Qatar led to the release of two American citizens, Natalie and Judith Raanan, with Sullivan, McGurk and Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser, tracking what turned out to be a multihour trip out of the Gaza Strip in real time from the West Wing. Their release emboldened Biden and his team to believe that the Qatar channel could lead to the release of more hostages.

The Israelis delegated authority to negotiate to David Barnea, the director of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency. Barnea began to speak regularly with William Burns, the CIA director, about the contours of a deal. Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Oct. 20, 22, 23 and 25, each time with the hostages a key topic of the conversation.

Hamas got word to the Americans on Oct. 25 that it had agreed to the parameters of a deal to release the women and children among the hostages, as long as there was a delay of a planned Israeli ground invasion into Gaza. But the Israelis did not view the deal as firm enough to hold back the invasion. Among other things, Hamas had not provided any proof that the hostages were still alive.

But the Israelis adapted their ground invasion to be phased in a way that would allow for a pause in fighting if a deal came together, according to U.S. officials. Over the next three weeks, as Israeli forces moved into Gaza, negotiations continued with Qatar, as well as Egypt.

At one point after McGurk got off the phone with Qatar’s prime minister, Biden insisted he wanted to talk with the emir himself. The call, which was not announced publicly, helped shape a deal that was coming together to free women and children in the first phase as part of what would be several stages of release in exchange for the release of Palestinians held prisoner by the Israelis.

The Israelis insisted that the first release include all women and children and demanded proof of life or identifying information. Hamas responded by saying it could guarantee that 50 hostages would be liberated in the first phase but refused to produce a list or even the criteria it was using to determine who would be released. On Nov. 9, Burns met in Doha, the Qatari capital, with Sheikh Tamim and Barnea to go through the texts of the emerging arrangement.

Biden called Sheikh Tamim three days later and said “enough was enough,” according to U.S. officials. The Americans and Israelis needed the names or clear identifying information for the 50 hostages who would be released. Without that, Biden told the emir there was no basis to proceed. Soon after, Hamas produced identifying criteria for the 50, although the Israelis and Americans believed the criteria would include more than that just 50.

Sullivan met the next day at the White House with families of Americans being held hostage to reassure them all was being done to secure their freedom.

A day later, Biden spoke with Netanyahu, who was still pressing for more than 50 hostages. The president urged that Netanyahu take the deal and then together, they would continue to work to free the rest in future stages. The prime minister ultimately agreed, and Dermer, his adviser, later called Sullivan to outline the formula preferred by Israel’s war Cabinet.

McGurk saw Netanyahu that same day in Israel. Walking out of a difficult meeting, the prime minister grabbed McGurk’s arm. “We need this deal,” Netanyahu said and implored McGurk to have the president call Sheikh Tamim on the final terms.

Hours later, as the deal seemed to be coming together, the talks abruptly halted, as communications went dark in Gaza and there was no line to Hamas. Once communications were restored, Hamas broke off the talks, citing the Israeli attack on Shifa Hospital in Gaza, a site the Israelis and Americans say is used by Hamas as a military outpost. Hamas insisted that Israeli forces leave the hospital without searching the grounds. Israel refused but sent word that it would keep the hospital running.

Talks then resumed. Biden, who was in San Francisco for unrelated meetings with Asian-Pacific leaders, called Sheikh Tamim on Friday and told him this was the last chance and “time was up,” as a U.S. official put it. Hamas wanted a five-day pause in fighting, but the president told him Israel would accept only four and Hamas should bow to that.

McGurk, who was listening in on the call from the Middle East, met with Sheikh Tamim in Doha the next day to go over the text of the deal. They patched in Burns by phone after he spoke with Mossad. The six-page deal envisioned women and children coming out in a first phase, including three Americans, but anticipated future releases. The emir passed the proposal to Hamas late that night.

In Cairo the next morning, McGurk was meeting with Abbas Kamel, the head of Egyptian intelligence, when a U.S. aide brought a message from Hamas leaders accepting nearly all of the terms. Over the course of the next few days, final details were worked out. On Tuesday morning, Hamas informed Qatar that it had approved the deal. Israel’s government met for seven hours that night and signed off, too.

“Today’s deal should bring home additional American hostages,” Biden said in a statement shortly before midnight on the East Coast on Tuesday, “and I will not stop until they are all released.”