The plan is for Hamas to hand the abductees to the Red Cross, which will deliver them to the Israeli military in Gaza. The hostages will be evacuated to hospitals.

The truce between Israel and Hamas was set to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time. The first Israeli hostages were to be released hours later in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Meanwhile, the November ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group.