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Hamas to release six hostages, hand over bodies of 3 Israelis — report

Hamas earlier published the names of 30 prisoners that Israel will release by the end of Thursday under a deal to swap them for hostages held by radical groups in the Gaza Strip

CAIRO, November 30. /TASS/. Hamas is set to release six hostages held in the Gaza Strip and hand over the bodies of three Israelis by the end of Thursday, Al Hadath television reported.

The release and the handover are scheduled to happen in the next few hours, according to the report.

Gaza’s radical groups freed two female hostages a while back. They have already returned to Israel.

Hamas earlier published the names of 30 prisoners that Israel will release by the end of Thursday under a deal to swap them for hostages held by radical groups in the Gaza Strip. The list includes eight women and 22 teenagers. It’s the seventh group of prisoners to be freed by Israel under the truce deal with Hamas.

Hamas said on November 22 it had reached an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Qatar and Egypt, to introduce a humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip for four days. The truce started on November 24. The agreement involves the release of women and children under the age of 19 that are held in the enclave in exchange for the release of women and children under the age of 19 from Israeli prisons. On November 27, the sides agreed to extend the truce for two more days based on the same terms as before, meaning three Palestinian prisoners will be freed every day in exchange for each released Israeli hostage. On November 30, it was announced that the truce was extended by one more day.