- Qatar foreign ministry confirms row settled
- Qatar says 13 Israelis and 4 foreigners were received by the ICRC
- Israel to release 39 Palestinians in exchange
The Gaza hostage deal was back on track after a temporary delay over a dispute about aid supplies to the north of the besieged enclave.
"13 Israelis and 4 foreigners were received by ICRC and on their way to Rafah," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman, Majed Al Ansari, said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
TV images showed Red Cross vehicles at Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
A Palestinian official familiar with the diplomacy said Hamas would continue with the four-day truce agreed with Israel, the first break in fighting in seven weeks of war.
Al Ansari earlier said a brief delay and obstacle to the hostage release were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides, adding that 39 Palestinian civilians were going to be released in exchange.
Among the Israeli hostages, eight were expected to be children and five others women, Al Ansari said, while the Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons would consist of 33 children and six women.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the hold-up over the hostage deal, Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said. About 3-1/2 hours after their call, the White House learned from the Qataris that the agreement was back on and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was moving to collect the hostages, Watson added.
The armed wing of Hamas had earlier said it was delaying Saturday's scheduled second round of hostage releases until Israel met all truce conditions, including committing to let aid trucks into northern Gaza.
Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan said only 65 of 340 aid trucks that had entered Gaza since Friday had reached northern Gaza, which was "less than half of what Israel agreed on."
