Um, it is 2 hours now, exactly 2 hours since the ceasefire came into effect in this war, which began on the 7 October between Israel and Hamas. It was a shaky start. We heard fierce fighting going on across in Gaza. You can see the skyline there. We've been showing you live pictures this morning. It was a shaky start. We heard, even after the ceasefire was due to again, at 07:00 this morning, 2 hours ago, the sounds of fighting. We heard the sound of small arms fire and mortar fire, but things now are calm and quiet. The ceasefire is underway, and it appears to be holding well. We're also seeing the start of humanitarian aid beginning to be taken into Gaza. And then later this afternoon, a really crucial moment in this conflict so far, where some of the hostages taken by Hamas are scheduled to be released. This is the first 13 hostages, a group of women and children who are due to be handed over by Hamas to Israel via the Red Cross at 04:00 this afternoon local time. That's 02:00 GMT. Now, it's been agreed that over the next four days, 50 women and children who are being held hostage in Gaza will be released.

Now, Israel confirmed last night that it's already been given a list of names of the first 13. Those families have been contacted. And once that exchange has taken place, israel will release 39 Palestinian prisoners who are being held in Israeli jails with a commitment to free as many as 150 over the four days if things go well. Now, of course, there is a lot riding on this deal. It is a very delicate deal. It has taken weeks to negotiate, and there are various key parts to it. One, of course, is the hostage release and the prisoner release, but also humanitarian aid as well. Now, Egypt has said that 130,000 liters of diesel, that is essentially four tankers of diesel, will cross from Egypt to Gaza each day as part of this deal. And we're also expecting 230 trucks filled with humanitarian aid to pass through Rafa as well. That's everything from basic supplies like food and water, to medical supplies as well, things which are desperately needed inside Gaza since this war began by the humanitarian situation. Now, there are hopes that this can be extended, that this truce will last longer. We heard the Qataris yesterday, when they were announcing the details of this deal, saying that they hoped that it would be a stepping stone to bigger things.

They thought it would be, or hoped it would be at least the beginning of a bigger ceasefire. But Israel's message has been very clear, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that the war against Hamas will not end. It will pause for four days, but he says it will continue until the hostages have been released and until Hamas has been fully removed from Gaza. Because, of course, let's not forget where all of this began on the 7 October and those brutal Hamas attacks here in southern Israel, in communities like this one in the city of Storot, where living so close to Gaza and looking out to this view, they are used to regular rocket attacks. Many of the homes and families here have safe rooms and they use them regularly. But on the 7 October, families were trapped inside for hours in some cases. Some of the stories that I have heard and the people that I have spoken to, where they talk about the fear and terror of being trapped indoors, and then we saw the brutal scenes of the murder of around 1200 people of Israeli nationality and other nationality as well.

But what united them is that they lived here or they were visiting these southern Israeli communities on the morning of the 7 October when those Hamas attacks were launched, which led to the war that we've been seeing now for almost seven weeks now. When the ceasefire came into operation this morning, 2 hours ago, the Israeli military posted a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, to coincide with the start of that ceasefire. They posted it in English and in Arabic as well. And they've also passed this message on via a leaflet drop this morning that has actually sent this message out to civilians inside Gaza because they have been waiting for this humanitarian pause in the fighting as well. And what the IDF has said, let me read to you exactly what their message says. Says the war is not over yet. The humanitarian pause is temporary. The northern Gaza Strip is a dangerous war zone and it is forbidden to move north. For your safety, you must remain in the humanitarian zone in the south. It's only possible to move from the north of the Strip to the south via Salal Din Road. The movement of residents from the south of the Strip to the north is not allowed and dangerous.

So that is a message that has been posted on social media in English and Arabic, sent out in that drop of leaflets as well that came fluttering down from the sky this morning over southern Gaza, because, of course, this moment for Palestinians in Gaza is hugely important. Many of them fled their homes when they were told that they had to move south. They didn't take with them everything, really. They didn't take with them often precious things. They didn't take with them a change of clothes. They left most of their lives behind. And we've seen already this morning many Palestinians as this ceasefire took hold, actually trying to go back to their homes, trying to see what is left of their homes and trying to perhaps gather supplies from their homes if anything is left at all. Well, let's take a few moments to really work through what is happening so far and what is expected to happen over the next few hours. Mohamed Saha is our correspondent from BBC Arabic. We're seeing the early parts of this deal come to fruition this morning. The ceasefire and the beginnings as well. We're seeing these live pictures, the beginnings of these humanitarian aid trucks starting to move as well.

Mohammed.

Yes, Anna. And another part of this deal that will start in 1 hour or so from now, where the Israeli air activities in the northern Gaza should stop as well for 6 hours as part of this deal. So the air activities has already stopped in the southern Gaza. It will stop in 1 hour in the north. And there is a massive military operation is happening right now as the Israeli forces are trying to replace some of the troops, they are trying to replace others. And with these, thousands of people are moving across the Gaza Strip. They do not respect the Israeli orders that they shouldn't go to the north. I saw pictures of people are going through Salahideen Road, going to the north. Do you want to see their homes? Do you want to see their relatives? There are already 100,000 people in the north. There are hospital, there are people are injured, there are dead people that haven't been buried yet. It's a tense situation. Israel hasn't operated as an occupying force in Gaza for a very long time. It is facing that now. So the military side is really tense. And I saw people are acting as if the war is ended.

They are taking all their belongings from where they were in tents, in hospitals, in schools. They are taking back to their homes on carrots that are pulled by donkeys and horses as there are no much fuel. They are using bicycles, they are using wheelbarrows. It's massive movements in the Strip at the moment. And on the political side, as you said, anna and Yoland used a very nice expression when she said it's a very ambitious plan. Yes, indeed, it's very ambitious. If the exchange of hostages would happen today at four on the Israelis on the Gaza side and at eight on the Palestinian side, that means that there are prospects that this truce would be more than four days to allow more hostages and prisoners go out. So this is the political and the Qataris also. They held the press conference and they said this is what they hope, that this truce wouldn't stay only for four days, but the success of the exchange of hostages and prisoners would open the door that this truce would continue. As I said, also on the truck situation and as you said, there are 230 trucks are expected to cross the Rafa cross border from Egypt into Gaza with supplies, with medical supplies, with food, with everything that the people want.

In Gaza, during these seven weeks of heavy war that they suffered really a lot, they lost 15,000 people dead, 7000 people are missing. They might be under the rubbles and they're really in a desperate situation at the moment. These trucks are crossing the Egyptian side of the Rafa cross border, but normally they have to be checked by Israeli forces before they go to Gaza. And this is where are we going to see also a tense situation? Are they going to be checked quickly? Are they going to go to Gaza smoothly? Are they going to go to the north or not? Where there are very desperate hospitals that are in bad need for supplies. But the situation of Gaza and people in Gaza are behaving, as I said, as the war is over and the tense situation may be moved. Anna now to the West Bank where there are Israeli operation in Nablus, in Hebron and in other parts of the West Bank. The Palestinians are saying that there are 3000 people were arrested in the West Bank over the last few weeks.

Yeah, it's an important detail. Thank you for now. Mohammed Saha from BBC Arabic will of course watch the situation in the occupied West Bank today. Also the situation on Israel's northern border with Lebanon as well. We'll speak to our correspondent in Lebanon to see there were questions about whether or not this ceasefire would include what was happening between Hezbollah and Israel on the northern border. So we'll keep across that for you as well. As you see these continuing live pictures of the skyline of Gaza. We are still seeing smoke rising above the skyline because there was fierce fighting right up to that ceasefire taking a shaky hold just over 2 hours ago this morning. But things are certainly a lot quieter than they have been. It looks like that ceasefire is holding so far and we're also seeing those pictures that Mohammed was describing there as well of the Rafa crossing and trucks starting to physically roll through the crossing, carrying additional humanitarian aid into Gaza. Well, let's head straight to Jerusalem. And our Middle East correspondent Yoland Nell. Yoland, things appear to be going to plan so far. What level of detail do we know about how things are due to unfold across the course of today?

Yeah, there were so many logistical details to be worked out, weren't there? And we were told that was one of the reasons for this delay of an extra day in this agreement taking effect. But now after that sort of shaky start, things steadying off with regards to the truce, we're getting a picture of more aid going in to the Gaza Strip. This period of safe passage that's being allowed for Palestinians, people moving around increasingly on the ground. And what we're waiting for is 04:00 local time, that's 02:00 UK time. That is when we understand that the first 13 of the 50 Israeli hostages who are going to be handed over to the International Committee for the Red Cross, that handover will take place, they will be brought out through Egypt's Rafa crossing. And then there is a whole protocol for what happens on the Egyptian side of the crossing. They will meet Israeli security forces, they have to have their identities checked, they'll undergo initial medical checks and then we understand that they're going to be brought by helicopter to Israel. They'll be taken to hospitals to have further medical checks and, of course, the reunions with their families.

And it will be within a couple of hours, according to the terms of the agreement, that then you can have the first batch of Palestinian prisoners being released from Israeli jails.

And this is supposed to, as you were saying there, yoland go on over a period of four days. And as you described so well, there so many fine logistical details to be worked out. There is the hope and the expectation that this will go according to plan. But the fragility of this deal means that things could go wrong at any time, couldn't they?

Definitely. And if you look at what's happening inside Gaza, I think it's very understandable, it's very ordinary human behavior. People want to go and see if they can get any belongings back from their homes, if they can have a decent night's sleep during this brief respite from the fighting. But the numbers of Palestinians that are moving around Israel will be watching very closely to see if some of those displaced people that it had previously ordered to go from the north to the south will be attempting to return to the north. It has said that's not allowed. It has dropped flyers to that effect and it wants people to come from the north of the Gaza Strip down to the south, but not to have the movement in the other direction. Now, that could be quite overwhelming for Israeli forces if the numbers trying to do what they're not supposedly allowed to do really become very large. I mean, other things we've heard already that how difficult it would be for Israeli forces if they see something happening during this period. If they were able to trace, for example, the location of one of the most sought after Hamas leaders, like Yahya Sinhwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, would they be able to resist holding back?

There are many things that could go wrong here, likewise for Hamas fighters and the other armed factions that operate in the Gaza Strip. We still have Israeli ground forces present there. This is really a very dangerous moment. Everything has to stick for this whole plan to unfold in the way that it's expected. And things really have to go well today so that we can see this repeated for three further days. And then there is built into the initial agreement that possibility that for every further ten hostages who are released that you get an additional day of pause. We're told, actually, that with Israeli warplanes, that's both the aircraft that have carried out airstrikes and drones retreating from Gaza airspace, that will also give hamas. More space to try to locate more of the hostages in the territory.

Yoland, thank you. Yoland Nell, our correspondent, Middle East correspondent who is monitoring the situation from Jerusalem. As we were saying, the ceasefire is now in place, seems to be holding. You can see as well, humanitarian aid starting to move in. And then significant moment will be hopefully, the release of those 13 hostages at 04:00 this afternoon, local time around the world and across the UK. This is BBC News.