Hamas has provided Israel with the names of four female hostages it will release on Saturday.
Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy — all 20 years old — and Liri Albag, aged 19, will be the next hostages to go free.
The women will be the second group released from captivity in Gaza after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force last Sunday.
Their return will trigger the release of more Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails, with the terms of the six week truce specifying 50 Palestinians would be freed for each Israeli soldier released by Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that the list had been received from the mediators. Israel's response would be presented later, it said in a statement.
Israeli media reported that the list of hostages slated for release was not in line with the original agreement, but it was not immediately clear whether this would have any impact on the planned exchange.
In the six-week first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel has agreed to release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female soldier released, officials have said. That suggests that 200 Palestinian prisoners would be released in return for the four.
The Hamas prisoners media office said it expected to get the names of 200 Palestinians to be freed on Saturday in the coming hours. It said the list was expected to include 120 prisoners serving life sentences and 80 prisoners with other lengthy sentences.
Since the release of the first three women on Sunday and the recovery of the body of an Israeli soldier missing for a decade, Israel says 94 Israelis and foreigners remain held in Gaza.
The ceasefire agreement, worked out after months of on-off negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States, halted the fighting for the first time since a truce that lasted just a week in November 2023.
In the first phase, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
In a subsequent phase, the two sides would negotiate the exchange of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which lies largely in ruins after 15 months of fighting and Israeli bombardment.
Israel launched the war following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities there.
The release of the first three hostages last week brought an emotional response from Israelis. But the phased release has drawn protests from some Israelis who fear the deal will break down after women, children, elderly and ill hostages are freed in the first phase, condemning male hostages of military age whose fate is not to be resolved until later.
Others, including some in the government, feel the deal hands a victory to Hamas, which has reasserted its presence in Gaza despite vows of Israeli leaders to destroy it. Hardliners, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have demanded that Israel resume fighting at the end of the first phase.
Most of Hamas' top leadership and thousands of its fighters have been killed but the group's police have returned to the streets since the ceasefire.
Major ongoing West Bank operation
Meanwhile, an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle near the West Bank town of Qabatiya killed two people, the Palestinian health ministry said.
It's the fourth day of a large-scale Israeli operation in the nearby city of Jenin launched after the truce in Gaza.
The Israeli military said an air strike had hit a vehicle with what it said was a "terrorist cell" inside but gave no further details.
The military has been carrying out a major operation in Jenin aiming to crack down on Palestinian militant groups it says are backed by Iran, launched just two days after a ceasefire took effect.
At least 12 Palestinians have been killed in the operation including two claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, according to Palestinian health officials.
The Israeli military said it had also arrested 20 wanted suspects and seized weapons.
Armoured bulldozers and diggers have demolished houses and dug up roads in the crowded refugee camp adjacent to Jenin, a major centre of armed militant groups, where thousands of people have left their homes.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said he was deeply concerned about the use of unlawful lethal force.
He said the Jenin operation raised serious concerns about unnecessary or disproportionate force.
Israeli officials say the operation in Jenin is part of a multi front war against an axis of Iranian-backed groups in the West Bank, southern Lebanon and Yemen.
ABC/Wires
