Palestinian militant group Hamas announced on Monday it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what it said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.
In reply, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Hamas had violated the ceasefire agreement with its announcement and said that he had instructed the military to prepare at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and to defend Israeli communities.
Abu Ubaida, a spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing, said that since the ceasefire came into effect on Jan. 19, Israel had delayed allowing displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, targeted Gazans with military shelling and gunfire and had stopped relief materials entering the territory.
The ceasefire has largely held over the past three weeks, although there have been some incidents where Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire. The flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza has increased since the ceasefire, aid agencies say.
As part of the first phase of a ceasefire deal, Israel has withdrawn troops from the crucial Netzarim corridor that divides Gaza, allowing more Palestinians to return home. But the next phase of the ceasefire has been further complicated by President Donald Trump insisting the U.S. should take over Gaza.
Abu Ubaida said Hamas would not release any more hostages until Israel “complies and compensates for the past weeks.”
Another exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners was scheduled to take place on Saturday.
Hold up in ceasefire talks for Phase 2
So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be released in the first 42-day phase of the deal have come home, as well as five Thai hostages who were returned in an unscheduled release.
In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of prisoners and detainees, ranging from prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks to Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.
But Hamas has accused Israel of dragging its feet on allowing aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the agreement, a charge Israel has rejected as untrue.
Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages, whose gaunt appearance shocked Israelis, while Israel began freeing dozens of Palestinians, on Saturday during the latest stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
In turn, Israel has accused Hamas of not respecting the order in which the hostages were to be released and of orchestrating abusive public displays before large crowds when they have been handed over to the Red Cross.
Earlier, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said an Israeli delegation had returned from ceasefire talks in Qatar, amid already growing doubts over the Egyptian and Qatari-brokered process to end the war.
There were no immediate details on the reason for the return from the talks, which are intended to form the basis for a second stage of the multi-phase ceasefire agreement and hostage-for-prisoner exchange reached last month.
A Palestinian official close to the discussions said progress was being held up by mistrust between the two sides, which have accused each other of breaching the terms of the ceasefire.
Palestinians have no right to return under Trump’s plan
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for U.S. “ownership” of the war-torn territory, contradicting other officials in his administration who have sought to argue Trump was only calling for the temporary relocation of its population.
Less than a week after he floated his plan for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and turn it in “the Riviera of the Middle East,” Trump, in an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier that was set to air on Monday, said “No, they wouldn’t” when asked if Palestinians in Gaza would have a right to return to the territory.
It comes as he has ramped up pressure on Arab states, especially U.S. allies Jordan and Egypt, to take in Palestinians from Gaza, who claim the territory as part of a future homeland.
“We’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is,” Trump said. “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”
Arab nations have sharply criticized the Trump proposal, and Trump’s latest words were released a day before he is set to host Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday. In addition to concerns about jeopardizing the long-held goals of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Egypt and Jordan have privately raised security concerns about welcoming large numbers of additional refugees into their countries even temporarily.
After Trump’s initial comments last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Secretary of State Marco Rubio respectfully insisted that Trump only wanted Palestinians relocated from Gaza “temporarily” and for an “interim” period to allow for debris removal, the disposal of unexploded ordinance and reconstruction.
Trump last week didn’t rule out deploying U.S. troops to help secure the territory but at the same time insisted no U.S. funds would go to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, raising fundamental questions about the nature of his plan.
