Israel-Gaza updates: 17 more hostages released, including 4-year-old American girl, officials say

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari provided an update Thursday evening as families await the negotiated return of some of the hostages from Hamas.

He said they received the list of women and children who will be part of the first group released and the IDF has informed their families.

"This is a hard and tense evening for us all," Hagari said.

He reiterated that the current negotiation with Hamas is "not the end of the process of returning the hostages, but the beginning of it."

"Our hearts are with the families, and we will continue to accompany them, to keep them updated with the reliable information that we have," he said.

-ABC News' Dana Savir

All areas of the Gaza Strip will receive medical supplies and fuel and cooking gas during the cease-fire, according to Hamas.

In a statement, Hamas said Israeli planes will stop flying over the southern Gaza Strip entirely during the cease-fire. Planes will stop flying over the northern Gaza Strip for six hours a day during the cease-fire.

Israel confirmed that it has received a list of hostages who will be released and officials are in contact with the hostages' families.

The Qatar Foreign Ministry announced that the cease-fire will begin on Friday at 7 a.m. local time and will last for four days.

The first hostages will be released at 4 p.m. local time, according to Dr. Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari, the Qatar Foreign Ministry's spokesperson. Thirteen women and children from the same families will be among the first to be released.

Fifty hostages will be released over four days, Qatar said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has accused Israeli authorities of arresting the head of an ambulance service in the Gaza Strip, among other medical staff, during the evacuation of patients and the injured from Al-Shifa Hospital.

"We are deeply concerned about our colleague Awni Khattab, director of the Khan Yunis Ambulance Center, who was arrested yesterday evening and taken to an unknown destination, while a convoy evacuating the wounded from Al-Shifa Hospital passed through the barrier that separates the northern Gaza Strip from its southern one," the PRCS said in a statement on Thursday.

"We hold the [Israeli] occupation authorities fully responsible for the safety of our colleague Khattab, and we demand the immediate release of him and all the medical teams who were detained," the PRCS added. "We call on the international community to provide urgent protection for medical personnel, in accordance with international humanitarian law, as humanitarian and medical personnel must not be a target under any circumstances."

There was no immediate confirmation or comment from the Israel Defense Forces, which has been conducting a ground raid of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for days. However, the IDF confirmed earlier Thursday that the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiya, was apprehended for questioning amid accusations that “there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity” at Gaza's largest medical complex while “under his management” -- claims which Hamas denies.

-ABC News' Nasser Atta and Morgan Winsor