Displaced Palestinians return to Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025, hours after a ceasefire deal in the war was implemented. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)
Doha, Qatar: “Logistical delay” in getting the names of the captives that are due to be released was the reason for the delayed implementation of the ceasefire, said Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson.
Advisor to the Prime Minister and Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs H E Dr. Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari spoke to Al Jazeera and said, "In November 2023, we had an exchange of similar parameters taking place and therefore we are not new to the difficulties of the last-minute exchange of information, including the names of prisoners and captives to be exchanged.”
“Within the operations of maintaining the ceasefire and implementing the deal, there are a lot of logistical difficulties that have to do with the situation on the ground,” he added.
“Communication and movement in Gaza is not easy and therefore it takes sometimes more time than expected, but thankfully we were able to resolve it and now we have the ceasefire in place and aid starting to go into Gaza.”
Al-Ansari also expressed confidence that the detainee-and-prisoner exchange later today will be “successful”.
The operations room of the mediators is in Egypt and is “working right now as we speak on making sure that the exchange today happens seamlessly”, he added.
