Hamas delays Israeli hostage release citing ceasefire breaches

Jerusalem — Hamas on Monday announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what the Palestinian militant group called Israeli violations of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, raising the risk of reigniting the conflict.

The unexpected announcement came as the ceasefire was already fragile even as families of the Israeli hostages urged the government to stick to the deal and Gazans sought to start rebuilding their lives in the shattered enclave after more than 15 months of war.

Hamas was to release more Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and other Palestinians held in Israeli detention as had happened over the past three weeks.

Hamas military wing spokesperson Abu Ubaida said Israeli violations included delaying Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, shelling and firing on Palestinians and stopping humanitarian aid from entering the strip.

The ceasefire has largely held since it began January 19, though there have been some incidents in which Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and Hamas delays in providing names of hostages it planned to free. The amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza has increased since the ceasefire, aid agencies say.

But Ubaida said the next scheduled hostage release on Saturday would be postponed until Israel complies with the ceasefire agreement and “compensates for the past weeks”.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas’ announcement violated the ceasefire deal and that he had instructed the military to be at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and for domestic defence.

An Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding security consultations. The security cabinet which includes defence, national security and foreign affairs ministers will meet on Tuesday morning, the official said.

Two Egyptian security sources said on Monday mediators fear a breakdown of the ceasefire agreement. Qatar and Egypt brokered the deal alongside the US.

A group representing hostage families called on mediators to rescue the deal, while another group representing Israeli military veterans accused the government of intentionally sabotaging the ceasefire.

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, including prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks and 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.

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, Netanyahu’s office 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 was no immediate explanation. The talks are intended to agree the basis for a second stage of the multiphase ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoner exchange accord reached last month.

A Palestinian official close to the discussions said progress was being held up by mistrust between the two sides.

US President Donald Trump's statements last week that Palestinians should be moved out of Gaza, leaving the coastal enclave to be developed as a waterfront real estate project under US control, have upended expectations for the postwar future.

Fox News on Monday released an excerpt of an interview with Trump in which he said Palestinians would not have the right of return to Gaza.

“I'm talking about building a permanent place for them” because “it’ll be years before (Gaza is) habitable”, he said. Trump said he thought he could make a deal with Egypt and Jordan to take them.

On his return to Israel over the weekend from Washington, Netanyahu praised Trump’s ideas.

This irritated Egypt, where security sources said Israel was “putting up roadblocks” to the smooth progress of the ceasefire deal, including delays to withdrawing its troops and continuing aerial surveillance.

Talks on a second stage of the ceasefire deal, to agree the release of the remaining hostages and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, began last week but have shown little sign of serious progress.

Israelis were shocked by the emaciated appearance of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, three hostages who were released on Saturday, which has complicated the picture.

An Israeli Channel 13 poll showed on Monday that 67% of Israelis wanted to move to the next phase of the deal while 19% did not. The poll was taken before Hamas announced it was postponing the process.

Reuters