Hamas says it’s delaying next hostage release, claiming Israeli truce violations
Defense minister calls delay an ‘outright violation’ of deal, orders IDF on highest alert, as PM moves up security cabinet meeting to Tuesday morning; mediators said concerned.
(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) The Hamas terror group announced Monday that it intended to delay the next release of Israeli hostages, slated for Saturday, “until further notice,” in response to what it claimed were Israeli violations of the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal.
The announcement prompted the prime minister to move up a security cabinet meeting, as the defense minister ordered the military on high alert. It came as the deal’s future remains uncertain, with Israel yet to send negotiators to Qatar with a mandate to discuss its potential second stage, despite the passage of a deadline to do so stipulated in the agreement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent days kept the door open to resuming fighting with Hamas, rather than continuing to a second phase of the deal, while US President Donald Trump has called for an American takeover of the enclave and the relocation of all of its residents.
Hamas military wing spokesman Hudhaifa Kahlout — known by the nom de guerre, “Abu Obeida” — said Monday that Israel had not fulfilled its obligations under the agreement over the past three weeks, claiming that the Israel Defense Forces are obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and targeting Palestinians returning to the north of the Strip.
“The release of the prisoners, which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice, pending the occupation’s compliance and retroactive fulfillment of the past weeks’ obligations,” he said, referring to the hostages Hamas took on October 7, 2023.
In later comments, the terror group said it was open to fulfilling the release on time if Israel ceases its ostensible violations. It said it had intentionally made the announcement five days ahead of the planned release “to give the mediators sufficient opportunity to pressure the occupation to implement its obligations, and to keep the door open to implement the exchange on time if the occupation adheres to its obligations.”
Channel 12 also quoted an Israeli source who noted that if Hamas had wanted to blow up the deal, it could have announced the delay closer to the scheduled release, rather than with almost a full week left to return to schedule.
Hamas claims Israel obstructing movement, aid
In its statement on Monday, Hamas said it had “closely monitored the enemy’s violations and failure to abide by the terms of the agreement over the past three weeks.”
“These include delaying the return of displaced people to northern Gaza, targeting them with shelling and gunfire across various areas of the Strip, and failing to allow the entry of humanitarian aid in all its forms as agreed upon,” he added, asserting Hamas had “fulfilled all its obligations.”
Israeli forces withdrew from the entire Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip overnight Saturday-Sunday, in accordance with the hostage release-ceasefire deal, allowing Palestinians to return to areas that had been controlled by the IDF since the early days of the war.
On Sunday, IDF troops opened fire on a group of dozens of Palestinians who approached the Israeli border in the northern Strip, reaching just a few hundred meters from troops who were stationed in a buffer zone. The IDF said the forces moved forward with military vehicles and fired warning shots.
It was not immediately clear what Hamas was referring to in its comments about humanitarian aid, which has been entering the Strip in great quantities. The terror group has in the past claimed that specific items, such as fuel, tents, and heavy machinery, were not being allowed into the enclave, which Israel has denied.
PM moves up security cabinet meeting
Following the announcement, Netanyahu held a consultation with the defense establishment leadership to discuss the matter, an official said.
The official told the media that Netanyahu would also move up a security cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon to the morning, following the terror group’s statement.
Israeli negotiators returned from Doha earlier Monday in advance of the meeting, after some 24 hours in Qatar, Hebrew media reported. The negotiators were in Qatar to discuss matters related to the current phase of the ceasefire, rather than the next one.
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday called the terror group’s move to delay the hostage release an “outright violation of the ceasefire,” and said he had ordered the IDF to “prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza and to protect the [border] communities.”
“We will not return to the reality of October 7,” he said.
Meanwhile, mediators feared a breakdown of the agreement, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
Hamas negotiators said US guarantees for the ceasefire were no longer in place, given a proposal by US President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and mediators postponed talks until a clear indication of Washington’s intent to continue the phased deal was received.
Kahlil al-Hayya, a member of the terror group’s politburo, said Monday at the 46th anniversary of the Iranian revolution in Tehran that Trump’s Gaza plan was “doomed.”
Referring to Trump, the United States and the West, he added: “We will bring them down as we brought down the projects before them.”
Hamas has also reportedly indicated that Trump’s plan could jeopardize the deal with Israel.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, told the Knesset on Monday, “We see eye to eye with the US administration on realizing all our war goals, including eliminating Hamas, getting all our hostages home, ensuring that Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel, [and] returning our residents to the north and the south.”
Hostages’ families urge commitment to deal
In a statement Monday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it had reached out to mediating countries to help save the deal.
“We stand with the Israeli government and encourage maintaining the conditions that will ensure the successful continuation of the agreement, leading to the safe return of our 76 brothers and sisters,” the forum said.
The families said that testimonies from released hostages “as well as the shocking conditions of the hostages released last Saturday, leave no room for doubt — time is of the essence, and all hostages must be urgently rescued from this horrific situation.”
Doctors have said that the three hostages who were released over the weekend — Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 — came back severely malnourished and suffering health issues, including heart disorders and infections.
In a statement Monday night, the Prime Minister’s Office said that “all the families of the hostages were informed” of Hamas’s announcement, and that the families were “made aware that the State of Israel is committed to respecting the agreement.”
With five rounds of hostage-prisoner releases completed in the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal as of Saturday, there are 17 Israeli hostages still supposed to be returned in the first phase, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners.
Seventy-three of the 251 people abducted by Hamas during its October 7 onslaught — when the terror group invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the war — remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Ben Gvir calls for return to war
Former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for Israel to resume its campaign against Hamas in Gaza in light of the announcement.
The far-right lawmaker, who opposed the ceasefire and quit the government over it, said Israel should carry out “a massive assault on Gaza, from the air and land, alongside a complete halt to humanitarian aid to the Strip, including electricity, fuel, and water, and including the bombing of aid packages that have already been brought in and are in the hands of Hamas.”
“We must return to war and destroy [Hamas]!” he wrote in a post on X.
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