Israel has just announced that the first Israeli hostages will not now be released until Friday at the earliest. The temporary ceasefire has been delayed as well. It was supposed to come into effect at 10:00 tomorrow morning, with the first of 50 hostages released at lunchtime. But tonight, Israel has said that negotiations were continuing with Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U. K. Under the deal they have been working on, 50 of around 240 Israelis should be released from Gaza around a dozen a day during a four day temporary ceasefire. In return, 150 Palestinian women and teenagers would be released from Israeli prisoners prisons. Our senior international correspondent, Olagirin, reports. And there are distressing images from the start.

A reminder of how all this began. On October 7, Hamas gunmen storming across the border from Gaza, hunting Israelis to kill or capture. Around 240 were taken hostage. Among them, Cherie Bibas, trying to shield her two little boys from the horror. All around them, ten month old Kathir had just started crawling. Ariel, who's four, loves climbing. And Batman. Now they and their mother are expected home in the coming days, along with dozens of other women and children. They don't know yet that Hamas killed their grandparents. Shiri's Cousin IFAT is caught between hope and torment, I don't know what kind.

Of children will come back to us. The trauma, what they saw. And until I see them in my own eyes, I don't believe any lists of names, and I don't believe any news coming today from anywhere. I need to see them in my own eyes. I need to hold my cousin in my arms.

But for many in Gaza, just the anguish of goodbye. Hassan Hallusa lost his niece, three brothers and his grandmother. Relatives say they were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a residential building. Gaza is teeming with grief and desperation. This was the struggle for a few bottles of water. The truce will clear a path for hundreds of trucks carrying food, fuel and medical supplies. For now, Gaza keeps burying its dead. With more than a hundred bodies in this mass grave. The next few days may bring quiet, but Israel and Hamas have said that after the truce, the war will resume.

Ola we have just heard a short time ago that the hostages will not now be released until Friday at the earliest. No temporary ceasefire until then either. What more can you tell us about this delay tonight?

Well, it's certainly a change, Sophie. At the 11th hour, Israel was gearing up for the release of hostages as early as tomorrow morning. Now, there are conflicting reports here about what has caused the setback. Some claims that Hamas hasn't actually ratified the ceasefire agreement. Other reports that it has not provided Israel with a list of the hostages who were to be released on the first day. And that mechanism is supposed to be part of the agreement. Now, a government source has told me in the last ten minutes that they believe these are relatively minor issues which need to be ironed out and that they would be ironed out tomorrow row. Now, that suggests that things would be back on track on Friday if that is the case. But what we can say for certain is that this will be an awful blow to the families. They've been waiting almost 50 days hoping that tomorrow was finally going to bring a moment of hope. Now back once again, they have to deal with uncertainty. And I think many of them will feel they will only believe this deal is happening when they see it.