A four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas — the first extended break in almost seven weeks of war — will most likely not begin until Friday at the earliest, Israeli officials said on Wednesday night, as negotiators hammered out details of an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would pause the fighting to allow the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

The timing for the releases, which may also not begin until Friday, was released in a statement issued by the National Security Council through the Israeli Prime Minister’s office and appeared to rule out the possibility that hostages could be freed on Thursday, as many of their families had hoped.

The timing of the cease-fire was disclosed by an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the highly sensitive issue.

The new information underscored the fluidity of the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, which are being mediated by Qatar. Earlier on Wednesday, Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera from Qatar that his group had agreed to a temporary cease-fire starting at 10 am (local time) on Thursday, and an Israeli official had set out the same timing.

The two sides announced on Wednesday morning — Tuesday evening in the US — that they had agreed to the exchange and a pause in fighting, but they spent much of the day working out tricky details about timing and methods. In an atmosphere of deep mutual mistrust, with a history of collapsed truces and without an intermediary attempting to keep peace on the ground, Palestinians and Israelis alike worried that the deal might yet fall through.

The deal calls for the release of at least 150 Palestinian women and teenagers jailed by Israel in exchange for at least 50 women and minors taken hostage during the Hamas assault in Israel on October 7. Israel said its warplanes would not fly over southern Gaza for the duration of the cease-fire and would not fly over the northern part of the territory for six hours each day.

But as if to highlight that there was no lull in the war yet, the Israeli military said on Wednesday that it “continued to fight in the Gaza Strip”, while Hamas said it had agreed to a truce, but “our hands will remain on the trigger”.

The Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity said hostages turned over by Hamas would be taken to hospitals, the seriously injured by helicopter. Those younger than 12 will be met at the border by their families, the official said, while older ones will meet their families at hospitals.

New York Times News Service