A group of 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers seized by Syrian rebels on the Golan are expected to be freed Saturday during a two-hour truce between the insurgents and government forces.

A group of 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers seized by Syrian rebels on the Golan are expected to be freed Saturday during a two-hour truce between the insurgents and government forces, a watchdog said.

"An agreement has been reached between the Syrian regime and the United Nations to stop the bombing between 10:00 am (08:00 GMT) and noon (10:00 GMT) on Saturday, in order to allow the evacuation of the 21 peacekeepers," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse late Friday.

"A Red Cross delegation should accompany the UN team to the area" to evacuate the peacekeepers, the Britain-based watchdog said.

In the Philippines, a military spokesman said the government still expects its members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) to be released despite shelling late on Friday that prevented an earlier handover.

On Wednesday, the rebel Yarmuk Martyrs brigade claimed the capture of the Filipinos and said they would hold them until troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad withdrew from the Jamla area, east of the ceasefire line with the Zionist entity.

Another Philippine spokesman said that the government had confirmation from the ground that the hostages were safe.

In New York, UN peacekeeping spokeswoman Josephine Guerrero said efforts to secure their release will resume Saturday.

The Filipinos, members of UNDOF monitoring the armistice line between Syria and the Zionist entity that followed the 1973 Arab-Zionist war, were abducted just a mile to the Syrian side of the line.

The rebels are demanding that Syrian troops move 20 kilometers (12 miles) back from Jamla.

Concern has been mounting that the abduction might prompt more governments to withdraw their contingents from the already depleted UN mission.