Another Israel-Hamas prisoner swap will take place this month: Palestinian official

This picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip shows an Israeli flare dropping and smoke billowing over north Gaza on Wednesday. — AFP

The Israel-Hamas deal agreed on Wednesday for the held in Gaza in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners will be repeated later this month, a Palestinian official told Reuters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that would mean a total release of 100 of the Hamas seized during its in southern Israel.

In return, Israel would in the two exchanges — a number corresponding to a list of women and teenaged male inmates it published on Wednesday as candidates.

A part of the current deal, which is due to begin on Thursday, Israel will pause its almost seven-week-old Gaza war to enable both the staggered recovery of the 50 hostages — all of them women or children — and entry of aid for Palestinians.

“The second batch will follow the first batch. They would need four or five days to organise it will involve 50 Israeli (hostages) in return for 150 Palestinian (prisoners),” the Palestinian official said. He said the prisoners would include elderly, women and children and the conditions will be the same.

Israeli officials did not immediately confirm this. But Israel has offered, in a cabinet statement, to extend the pause by a day for every additional 10 hostages handed over by Hamas.