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A four-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began at 7am local time (5am GMT) on Friday.
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Hamas will release 50 hostages to Israel as part of the deal, which will also see 150 Palestinian prisoners set free.
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The hostages will be solely women and children, with the initial group released predominantly made up of members of the same families.
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More than 13,300 Palestinians have died since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
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At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel following Hamas’ October 7 attack in the south of the country.
Hamas and Israel will exchange hostages and prisoners on Friday, as a temporary ceasefire begins in Gaza after seven weeks of violence in the region.
A temporary pause in the fighting began at 7am local time (5am GMT), with civilian hostages to be released by Friday afternoon.
Proscribed terror group Hamas will free 13 women and children from the enclave, the first wave of a total 50 hostages which are expected to be released as part of the deal.
The families of the hostages who are to be released, and those of who will not be, have been notified by the Israeli government.
A spokesperson for the foreign ministry of Qatar revealed that hostages from the same families will be released together in the first group.
Qatar has played a key role in mediating the deal which was announced on Wednesday.
The official said the hostages will enter Israel at two locations: the Nitzana border crossing with Egypt, and directly via the Kerem Shalom crossing from Gaza.
Once back on Israeli territory, the freed hostages will be taken by helicopter to two hospitals close to Tel Aviv.
In return, Israel will free 39 Palestinian prisoners out of a total 150 – most of whom are teenagers who were detained for minor offences.
The prisoners will be taken from two jails – Damon and Megiddo, both southeast of Haifa – and driven to the Ofer prison, south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, for final checks by the Red Cross charity.
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From there they will be driven through the nearby Beitunia crossing point and on to their hometowns in the West Bank.
Women and male teenagers up to the age of 18 are expected to make up the released prisoners.
The timing of the release is unclear, but Israel has said the prisoners would not be freed until the hostages from Gaza are back in Israeli hands.
Increased aid, meanwhile, will start to enter Gaza “as soon as possible”, according to the Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson. Hamas has said that 200 aid trucks a day will enter Gaza.
During the cease-fire Israel has agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 litres of fuel per day – amounting to roughly double what it has previously permitted.
Fighting will continue ‘forcefully’ after brief truce
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says Israel’s military operation against Hamas will continue “forcefully” when the temporary pause ends.
“This will be a brief pause. When it ends, the fighting will continue forcefully, and will create pressure that will allow the return of more hostages,” Mr Gallant said.
“A fighting of at least two more months is expected,” he added.
Soldiers will remain in northern Gaza while the ceasefire is in effect, blocking them from moving south until the deal has been completed.
More than 13,300 Palestinians – many of them women and children – have currently been killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The ministry had stopped keeping a death toll after it claimed to have lost the ability to do so because of the health system’s collapse in northern Gaza.
At least 1,200 people died in southern Israel when Hamas launched its surprise attack there on October 7.