Israel-Hamas war: Russia welcomes four day truce; 50 Israeli hostages to be released

Earlier in the day, Palestinian movement Hamas confirmed that it had agreed with Israel on a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip with the cessation of all hostilities and the release of 50 Israeli hostages in return for 150 Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas will hand over to Israel a preliminary list of 10 prisoners on Wednesday evening; if it is agreed upon, the Israeli side will hand over to the Palestinian movement a list of prisoners whom they will be willing to release in return.

"This is the first good news from Gaza in a long time," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters.

"Russia and most countries were calling for a truce and humanitarian pauses, because only on the basis of such pauses can the contours of future attempts at a sustainable settlement be built."

President Vladimir Putin has, since the beginning of the war, called attention to the suffering of Palestinian citizens, termed the situation a failure of U.S. policy, and encouraged Israel to exercise patience, Reuters reported.

Last month, Russia infuriated Israel by hosting a Hamas delegation in Moscow.

On Tuesday, the BRICS nations demanded a humanitarian truce between Israel and the Gaza Strip, leading to a cessation of hostilities.

“We called for an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities,” BRICS said in a joint communiqué.

“Acts of violence aimed at Palestinian and Israeli civilians were condemned, including war crimes, indiscriminate attacks, and targeting of civilian infrastructure, as well as all acts of provocation, incitement, and destruction." the joint communiqué read.

(With UNI/Sputnik inputs)