A pause in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza will start on Friday morning and an exchange of hostages and prisoners will follow hours later, mediator Qatar said, after nearly seven weeks of fighting.

The breakthrough four-day truce facilitated by Qatar with help from Egypt and the United States had been due to take effect on Thursday but was delayed after a last-minute hitch.

A U.S. warship patrolling the Red Sea intercepted multiple attack drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on Thursday, the U.S. Central Command said.

"On the morning (Yemen time) of November 23, the USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) shot down multiple one-way attack drones launched from Houthi controlled areas in Yemen," CENTCOM said on X.

France on Thursday said an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of 50 hostages in exchange for a humanitarian truce should go ahead "without further delay".

Paris is also urging "the immediate release of all hostages", said Anne-Claire Legendre, spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry. "We call for the terms of this agreement to be fully respected," she added.

The mastermind of the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the worst Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed in generations is a secretive figure, feared on both sides of the battle lines.

In Gaza, no figure looms larger in determining the future trajectory of the war than Yehya Sinwar. Obsessive, disciplined and dictatorial, he is Hamas' top leader inside the Palestinian territory, a rarely seen veteran militant who learned fluent Hebrew during years in Israeli prisons and carefully studied his enemy.

The negotiations hardly ran smoothly. But in the end, persistence paid off.

Six weeks ago, not long after Hamas' surprise assault, the government of Qatar quietly reached out to the United States to discuss how to release those who had been taken captive by the militant group.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a four-day halt in their devastating war in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages taken captive by militants on Oct. 7, when Israeli communities were overrun and some 240 people abducted.

The agreement will bring the first respite to war-weary Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 11,000 people, many women and children, have been killed. It could also offer a glimmer of hope to the families of those abducted weeks ago.

The United States military said Wednesday that it had carried out strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq that have launched attacks on U.S. forces.

Two officials with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said the strikes hit three locations in the area of Jurf al-Sakhar south of Baghdad, killing eight members of the Kataeb Hezbollah militant group. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Israel and Hamas announced a deal on Wednesday allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, while offering besieged Gaza residents an extendable four-day truce after weeks of all-out war.

In the first major diplomatic breakthrough in the war, Palestinian militants will release during a four-day truce 50 women and children taken captive during their October 7 raids.

U.S. forces on Tuesday "responded" following an attack on them at an Iraq base that caused minor injuries to personnel and damage to infrastructure, a U.S. military official said.

"Following the attack... U.S. forces responded in self-defense against those who carried out the strike," the official said on condition of anonymity when asked about a dawn drone attack in the Abu Ghraib region west of Baghdad.

In black robes, white moustaches and traditional hats, Druze religious elders stood before the coffin of Israeli soldier Adi Malik Harb, killed fighting Hamas militants in Gaza.

But while Israel's Druze minority serve in the military and fight and die for the country, many of them say their communities are marginalized and deprived of public investment while families are fined crippling sums for building homes due to selective enforcement of planning rules.