[caption id="attachment_3754" align="alignleft" width="1120"] Majed al-Ansari talking to reporters in Doha on November 23, 2023. (Supplied)[/caption] Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas will begin a four-day ceasefire on Friday morning and release the first Israeli hostages later that day, according to Qatari mediators. The agreement, the first in a brutal war that lasted almost seven weeks, began at 7 a.m. local time (5 GMT) and includes a comprehensive ceasefire in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, Qatar’s foreign ministry's spokesperson said. Aid supplies are flowing to Gaza and Israeli hostages are scheduled to be released at 4 p.m. Ministry spokesperson Majid al-Ansari told reporters in Doha that the Palestinians will be released from Israeli prisons under the agreement. Hamas, which was expected to declare a ceasefire with Israel a day earlier on Thursday simply because of the protracted negotiations, confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities by its forces would cease. Israel receives an initial list of hostages to be released from Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office announced Thursday that the release is scheduled to take place after a ceasefire with Hamas takes effect on Friday. Israel launched a war in Gaza after Hamas militants breached the border fence on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages, according to Israeli statistics. Since then, Israeli bombing in Hamas-held areas has killed more than 14,000 Gazans, about 40 percent of them children, according to health officials. Israel said the ceasefire could last beyond the initial four days as long as the insurgents release at least 10 hostages per day. Palestinian officials have said that up to 100 hostages could be freed by the end of November in a second wave. Both sides say they will resume fighting once the ceasefire ends.