[caption id="attachment_3764" align="alignleft" width="1500"] Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of Gaza City, during the ongoing Israeli bombardment on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. AP[/caption] Israel and Hamas began a four-day ceasefire on Friday. The insurgents are expected to free 13 Israeli women and children held hostage later today and send aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, the first lull in the nearly seven-week war. The ceasefire began at 7am (5 GMT) and included a comprehensive ceasefire in the north and south of the Gaza Strip. Later, a Qatari mediators announced that some of the more than 200 hostages captured by Israel's Hamas in the October 7 attack had been released. In return, several Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons should be released. Fighting continued for several hours before the ceasefire, and officials in Hamas-held areas said hospitals in Gaza City were among the targets of bombing. Both sides also indicated that the suspension would be temporary before fighting resumes. Gaza health officials said Indonesian hospitals had been hit by relentless bombing, were operating without lights and were filled with bedridden elderly people and children too weak to be transported. Al Jazeera quoted Mounir el-Barsh, director of Gaza's health ministry, as saying that the injured woman and one patient died, and three others were injured. Additional aid is flowing into Gaza and the first hostages, including an elderly woman, will be released at 4pm. In Doha, Majid al-Ansari, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman, said the total had increased to 50 in four days. Egypt announced that at the start of the ceasefire, 130,000 liters of diesel and four truckloads of gasoline would be delivered to Gaza every day, and 200 trucks carrying aid would enter the Gaza Strip daily. A Qatari spokesperson told reporters that Palestinians are scheduled to be released from Israeli prisons. “We all hope that this ceasefire will be an opportunity to begin extensive work to achieve a permanent ceasefire.” Hamas confirmed on its Telegram channel that all hostilities by its forces have ceased.