Ceasefire comes into effect after delay in Gaza

KABUL (Pajhwok): The long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza came into effect after a delay of nearly three hours on Sunday, the BBC reported.

After months of talks, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, the three-stage ceasefire agreement was achieved last week.

The ceasefire, originally due to start at 08:30 (06:30 GMT) on Sunday, was delayed last-minute after Hamas failed to give Israel the names of the three hostages in time - Hamas says it was due to ‘technical field reasons’.

The first three Israeli female hostages are expected to be freed later - Hamas has named them as 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher, dual British-Israeli Emily Damari, 28, and 24-year-old Romi Gonen who was kidnapped from the Supernova Festival.

sa/ma