Temporary Pause In Fighting To Start 1000 Local Time On 23 Nov

Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk has stated to Al Jazeera that the four-day truce brokered between Israel and Hamas will start at 1000 local time (0300ET, 0800GMT, 0900CET) on Thursday 23 November.

• The Times of Israel carries comment from the Israeli Cabinet on how the hostage-for-prisoner exchange will work, and how long the temporary pause could continue for:
  • "The release will take place in two stages, with multiple phases in each stage. In the first stage, Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 50 hostages. This will take place in four phases, with at least 10 hostages being released in each phase, and the prisoners released only once the hostages are back in Israeli custody.[...]. The war cabinet is also authorized to determine the timing of each phase as well as the end of each phase, and the entire exchange and pause in fighting is limited to a maximum of 10 days from the end of the first phase."
• The announcement of the pause has received strong vocal support from many of Israel's close allies in North America and Europe, and there will likely be strong diplomatic pressure on the Netanyahu gov't not to relaunch the Gaza offensive to the same extent once the hostage exchanges have concluded.