The start of the four-day pause in fighting in Gaza is due to be announced over the next 24 hours.

Until then, Israel's operation seems to be continuing.

Pictures of Gaza's skyline taken this morning show smoke rising over the territory after an apparent Israeli airstrike.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

More now on the list shared by Israel's justice ministry of 300 Palestinian detainees who could be released.

Most are aged 17 or 18, with the overall age range 14-59. The majority of the detainees - 274 of 300 - are male.

Also listed are the offences, and alleged offences, of the detainees. They include attempted murder, throwing a bomb, creating an explosive or incendiary object, throwing stones, contact with a hostile organisation, grievous bodily harm and arson on nationalist grounds.

Israel has just released of a list of 300 Palestinians that could be released under the deal struck between Israel and Hamas.

The list, posted on Israel's justice ministry website, external, includes the names, ages and offences of those eligible.

As a reminder, only 150 detainees are expected to be released at first. We'll have more details soon.

Qatar - which mediated the deal between Israel and Hamas - says a "number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons" will be released in exchange for the 50 hostages.

Hamas says 150 Palestinians will be freed under the deal.

Yesterday, Human Rights Watch told the BBC there were nearly 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli detention, including 200 women and around 60 children.

Some of the children were detained for offences as "relatively minor as stone throwing", HRW programme director Sari Bashi told the Newshour programme.

She added that Palestinian children were subject to military law, which can see them "arrested in the middle of the night […] being interrogated without their parents or a lawyer present, and held for long periods of time for relatively minor offences".

Image source, EPA

Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin says he hopes the Israel-Hamas deal will bring "good news" for the 25 Thai hostages being held in Gaza.

Thailand has been holding separate talks with Hamas about the release of its nationals. Last week, Bangkok's negotiators said they received assurances that Thai hostages were "safe".

More than 25,000 Thais work in Israel, mostly in agriculture. Hamas's attack on southern Israel on 7 October killed 39 Thais, with 19 others hurt.

The next several hours will see relatives of Hamas's hostages nervously waiting for news on the possible release of their loved ones.

Omer Lubaton Granot tells us he is hopeful that his female relative and her three children will be among the 50 who will be freed.

"We are still hoping that we will see them home. They are such a good and decent family, very active in the community and in sports," Granot says.

"We are waiting and we want them to come back to their normal lives."

Since Hamas took more than 200 people hostage from southern Israel on 7 October, their relatives have been desperately waiting for positive news.

"This is how our life is looking in the last few weeks. We can bear another 24 hours," he says. "We want to hear some good news."

Lots has happened in the past few hours - here's what you need to know.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal that will see 50 hostages released from Gaza over four days - during which there'll be a pause in fighting.

If successful, it'll be the first break since the beginning of the war.

Here's what we know about the deal:

• Israeli officials say the 50 hostages to be released will all be women and teenagers
• The pause in fighting could last for more than four days - Israel says that for every 10 hostages released on top of the initial 50, the pause will be extended by a day
• Israel also insists that this isn't the end of the war - which "will continue" to get all the hostages home, "complete the elimination of Hamas" and ensure there's "no new threat" to Israel from Gaza
• Hamas says the 50 hostages will be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails
• Qatar, which mediated the agreement, says a larger number of trucks carrying aid, medical supplies and fuel will be allowed to enter Gaza, which is facing a dire humanitarian situation
• It's still not clear when the pause will start - Qatar says this will be announced in the next 24 hours
• It is also expected that the 50 hostages to be released would be those with Israeli nationality or dual nationals - not foreign nationals

We've heard from Israel and Hamas on their deal - but now Qatar, which helped broker the agreement, has released a statement.

They say the "starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours".

The pause will then last for four days, they add, "subject to extension".

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Getty Images

For Palestinians in Gaza, a respite in the brutal fighting cannot come soon enough.

Qatar – which mediated this deal – says there will be an announcement on the start of the pause within the next 24 hours.

The deal will allow hundreds of lorries of humanitarian, medical and fuel aid to enter all parts of the Gaza Strip via Egypt's Rafah crossing. Aid agencies have been working to get ready for this.

It is understood that the boost in fuel – desperately needed for hospital generators, water desalination and sewage facilities – will only last for as long as the pause.

Although the deal is set to halt most Israeli military operations and allow people in Gaza safe passage from north to south, it will not permit the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from the north to return home.

More on that statement from US President Joe Biden.

He praises Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ensuring more humanitarian assistance reaches Gaza as part of the deal.

Biden says this will "alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families in Gaza".

The deal includes allowing hundreds more lorries carrying medical aid and fuel to enter Gaza.

Joe Biden says he's "extraordinarily gratified" that some of the hostages who have endured "weeks of captivity and an unspeakable ordeal" will be reunited with their families once the deal is implemented.

The US president thanks the leaders of Qatar and Egypt for their "critical leadership and partnership" in reaching the agreement.

And he says he appreciates Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "commitment" to supporting a pause in fighting.

"It is important that all aspects of this deal be fully implemented," he stresses.

US heavily involved in brokering this dealpublished at 03:55 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2023

03:55 GMT 22 November 2023

Barbara Plett Usher
US State Department correspondent

The Americans have been heavily involved in brokering this hostage deal.

From the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to the head of the CIA, to the president himself, there’s been intense and persistent engagement with Qatar and Israel to push it through.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited Joe Biden with improving the terms of the agreement, so that it had “more hostages and lower costs”.

Image source, EPA

The administration has a stake in this: 10 Americans are unaccounted for and presumed held captive. Three of them, including a three-year-old girl named Abigail, are set to be released in the first phase of the deal, according to a senior administration official.

The US has also been pushing to increase the trickle of aid into Gaza, including desperately needed fuel.

The official said the Americans hoped the pause in fighting would result in a “real surge” of humanitarian supplies, and had been working to prepare for that.

We've been hearing from Israel on the hostage deal signed off by the cabinet a little while ago. Hamas has also released a statement on the agreement.

The statement, published via the Palestinian Information Centre which carries the group's official statements, said the 50 hostages would be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children being held in Israeli jails.

The deal will also allow hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid, medical supplies and fuel to enter Gaza, according to Hamas.

The statement added that Israel said it would not attack or arrest anyone in Gaza during the pause in fighting.

And it said that during the four-day pause, air traffic will completely stop in southern Gaza and will halt for six hours a day, from 10:00 to 16:00 local time, in northern Gaza.

Hamas, considered a terrorist group by many countries including the UK and the US, abducted around 240 people from Israel during its brutal attacks on 7 October.

Deal is designed to encourage more hostage releasespublished at 02:52 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2023

02:52 GMT 22 November 2023

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

This long-expected deal has just been signed off.

While it initially allows for 50 women and child hostages to be freed in batches by Hamas in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting, the deal has evidently been structured to encourage further releases.

The incentive is a longer pause in fighting: “The release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause,” the Israeli government statement says.

That clause is an important one for the hostage’s families, some of whom had told me they didn’t want to see a partial deal.

It is also expected that the 50 hostages to be released would be those with Israeli nationality or dual nationals.

Matt Murphy
Live reporter, in Washington DC

More now on that briefing from a senior US official.

They say the US anticipates the number of hostages to be released "will be more than 50, but I just don't want to put a number on it".

"But the way the deal is structured is it very much incentivizes the release of everybody," they told reporters on Tuesday.

In exchange for the release, the official said Israel "will release a number of Palestinian prisoners".

Matt Murphy
Live reporter, in Washington DC

A senior US official has said they expect at least three American citizens - including a three-year-old child - to be among the hostages released by Hamas in the coming days.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the official said the child, named Abigail, will turn four on Friday. They added that her parents had been killed in the 7 October attack by Hamas.

The official said the releases will take place over a period of four to five days.

Here's the full statement from the office of Israel's prime minister:

"The government of Israel is obligated to return home all of the hostages.

"Tonight, the government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which at least 50 hostages – women and children – will be released over four days, during which a pause in the fighting will be held.

"The release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause.

"The government of Israel, the IDF [Israeli military] and the security services will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the State of Israel from Gaza."

We're picking through the statement from the Israeli prime minister's office.

It says, as part of the deal, "the release of every additional 10 hostages will result in one additional day in the pause".

This is on top of the first 50 hostages who will be released over an initial four-day halt in the fighting.

In a statement, Israel's prime minister's office says 50 hostages will be released over the course of four days.

There will be a pause in fighting during this time, the statement added.

Israel’s cabinet has voted to approve a hostage deal with Hamas following more than six weeks of intense fighting in Gaza.

We'll bring you more on this developing line shortly.