Thirteen hostages taken by Hamas will be released on Friday, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry has announced.
Majid al-Ansari said the hostages would be released around 4pm local time with a four-day truce agreed between Israel and Hamas beginning at 7am on Friday.
Under the deal, 50 hostages are to be freed during the pause in fighting. The deal was meant to be implemented on Thursday but a last-minute hitch saw it delayed.
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' October 7 attack that triggered the war.
Mr al-Ansari said the hostages, some of them children and others elderly women, would be handed over to the Red Cross.
“We have to remember this is a war zone,” he added.
He said the two sides had exchanged lists of those to be released, and the first group of 13 women and children would be freed on Friday. 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," he added. The hope is that the "momentum" from this deal will lead to an "end to this violence," he told reporters.
Earlier on Thursday, David Cameron met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog during a visit by the UK Foreign Secretary to Israel.
The former prime minister, who arrived in Israel amid uncertainty about when the pause in the fighting will begin, expressed hope that it could be an "opportunity to crucially get hostages out and get aid into Gaza".
Speaking as he met with Mr Netanyahu, Lord Cameron said he wanted all parties to the agreement to "make it happen".
The foreign secretary who earlier visited Kibbutz Be'eri, scene of some of the worst violence during the Hamas assault, said: "There is never any excuse for this sort of hostage-taking.
"All the hostages should be released, but I hope that everyone who is responsible and behind this agreement can make it happen, to bring relief to those families, including, of course, there are British nationals who have been taken hostage."
Lord Cameron's visit comes a day after he met counterparts from Arab and Islamic countries - including the Palestinian Authority - at Lancaster House in London to discuss the Middle East crisis.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and Nigeria, as well as the secretary general of the League of Arab States, and the ambassador of Qatar, attended the event.
Lord Cameron said the group discussed how to use the planned pause in the Israel-Hamas fighting to consider "how we can build a peaceful future which provides security for Israel but also peace and stability for the Palestinian people".
But until the truce is implemented, Israel has said it will continue to target Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes continued on Thursday. In the afternoon, a strike leveled a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. At least 12 people were killed, according to officials at nearby Al-Aqsa Hospital.
One resident, Hosni Moharib, said his wife and several children were killed and other relatives remained buried under the rubble.
"It exploded on the house, striking the babies and young children. Everyone in the house, they are all dead," he said, bursting into tears.
The Israeli bombardment, now in its seventh week, has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza,
