Hamas accuses Israel of violating ceasefire, says it will stop releasing hostages

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, raising the risk of reigniting the conflict.

The unexpected announcement comes amid growing doubts over an already fragile ceasefire even as families of the Israeli hostages urge the government to stick to the deal and Gazans try to rebuild their lives in the shattered enclave.

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

The group’s military wing spokesperson Abu Ubaida 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 shelling and gunfire and had stopped relief materials from entering the territory.

The ceasefire has largely held since Jan. 19, 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.

But Ubaida said the next scheduled release of hostages 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’s announcement violated the ceasefire deal and that he had instructed the military to prepare at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and to defend Israeli communities.

The Israeli army said on Monday it is raising the “level of readiness” and reinforcing its forces in the southern command for defensive missions, according to a statement. It said it was also postponing leave for combat soldiers and operational units within the command.

An Israeli official said the prime minister was holding security consultations. The security cabinet of select ministers, including defence, national security and foreign affairs, would meet on Tuesday morning, the official said.

Two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Monday mediators fear a breakdown of the ceasefire agreement. Qatar and Egypt brokered the deal alongside the United States.

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

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.

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.

No right to return 

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 U.S. 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.