Hamas has announced it will free four hostages in the next exchange with Israel under the terms of a fragile truce aimed at ending 15 months of war in Gaza.
Desperately needed humanitarian aid has begun to flow into Gaza as Palestinians displaced by the war return to devastated areas of the territory, hoping the deal will hold.
The ceasefire came into effect on Sunday and saw Israel and Hamas carry out their first hostage-for-prisoner exchange.
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said four Israeli women hostages will be freed on Saturday in exchange for a second group of Palestinian prisoners.
In Washington, newly inaugurated President Donald Trump cast doubt on whether the truce would hold. ‘That is not our war; It’s your war. But I’m not sure,” he said upon returning to office for a second term.
Trump had taken credit for the three-phase ceasefire agreement announced before his return to the White House by Qatar and the United States, after months of fruitless negotiations under his predecessor Joe Biden.
Qatar was confident in the ceasefire agreement it helped broker “in regards to the language of the agreement, in regards to the fact that we discussed all the important issues on the table,” its spokesman said on Tuesday. Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The new US president has made clear that he would support Israel and, in one of his first acts as president, revoked sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank imposed by the Biden administration over attacks on Palestinians.
Relatives welcome freed Israeli hostage Doron Steinbracher after her release from Hamas captivity on Sunday.

Hamas fighters hand over Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

US President Donald Trump, who took credit for the hard-won ceasefire deal, said he doubted the deal would hold when he took office for a historic second term.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on his return, while far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich thanked him for lifting sanctions.
“I look forward to working with you to return the remaining hostages, destroy Hamas’s military capabilities and end its political rule in Gaza, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said.
‘Mister. “President, your unwavering and uncompromising support for the State of Israel is a testament to your deep connection to the Jewish people and our historic right to our land,” Smotrich wrote in X.
Ghadeer Abdul Rabbo, 30, displaced from Gaza, said he hopes that “with or without Trump,” the ceasefire will hold and the world’s governments will help “keep this calm, because we are afraid.”
If all goes as planned, during the initial 42-day phase of the truce that began on Sunday, a total of 33 hostages will be returned from Gaza in exchange for some 1,900 Palestinians.
During those six weeks, the parties must negotiate a permanent ceasefire.
In Rafah, southern Gaza, Ismail Madi said that ‘we have endured immense hardships, but we will stay here. “We will rebuild this place.”
Three Israeli hostages, all women, were reunited with their families on Sunday after more than 15 months in captivity.
Hours later, 90 Palestinian prisoners were released from an Israeli jail.

Released Palestinian prisoner Nidaa Zaghebi hugs her mother-in-law and son after her release from an Israeli jail as part of a hostage-prisoner exchange.

Released Palestinian prisoner Nidaa Zaghebi hugs her daughter, Cilla, after her release from an Israeli jail as part of a hostage-prisoner exchange on Sunday.
In Israel, there was jubilation when Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher returned home and appeared to be in good health.
‘In Emily’s own words, she is the happiest girl in the world; “She’s got her life back,” Damari’s mother Mandy said Monday, adding that her daughter was doing “much better than any of us could have expected” even after losing two fingers.
The first group of Palestinians freed under the deal left Ofer prison in the West Bank early Monday, with jubilant crowds celebrating their arrival in the nearby town of Beitunia.
One released detainee, Abdul Aziz Muhammad Atawneh, described the prison as “hell, hell, hell.”
Another, Khalida Jarrar of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, banned as a “terrorist” group by Israel and some Western governments, said she had been kept “in solitary confinement for six months.”
Relatives of the three former Israeli hostages called for the release of the remaining 91 captives captured during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that sparked the war, including 34 who the military says are dead.
Meirav Leshem Gonen, mother of Romi Gonen, said: “We got our Romi back, but all families deserve the same result, both the living and the dead.”
There was anxiety in Israel about the next phases of the truce, and columnist Sima Kadmon warned in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the next hostage releases may be more painful than the first.
‘Some of them will arrive on stretchers and wheelchairs. Others will arrive in coffins. “Some will arrive wounded and injured, in a desperate emotional state,” he wrote.
In southern Gaza, Ammar Barbakh, 35, spent the first night of the truce in a tent over the rubble of his home.

People walk past the rubble of collapsed buildings along Saftawi Street in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, January 20, 2025.
“This is the first time I’ve slept comfortably and I’m not afraid,” he said.
“It’s a beautiful feeling and I hope the ceasefire continues.”
The war has devastated much of the Gaza Strip and displaced the vast majority of its population of 2.4 million.
More than 900 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Monday, the United Nations said.
The day the agreement came into effect, 630 trucks entered Gaza.
Qatar, which played a key role in negotiating the truce, said 12.5 million liters of fuel would enter Gaza during the first 10 days.
The Hamas attack on October 7 killed 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Sunday that the death toll in the war had reached 46,913, most of them civilians, figures the United Nations has said are reliable.