'The waiting is hard, mostly because of the uncertainty and feeling helpless,' says Gil Dickman, whose cousin and cousin-in-law were taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks. 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. Qatar said the pause would begin Friday at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) with the "first batch" of 13 civilian hostages -- all women and children from the same families -- being handed over around nine hours later. 'In the end, bringing the children home is great news, they are the most at risk and need to be home. We can only hope that it also means there will be good news to follow,' said Dickman. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES