GAZA CITY: Palestinian group Hamas announced on Monday that it will indefinitely postpone the release of hostages “until further notice” because of Israel’s violation of the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
Hamas cited various breaches, including delays in the return of displaced Palestinians, ongoing attacks, and failure to allow the entry of humanitarian aid, as reasons for the delay.
“The release of the prisoners (Israeli hostages), which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice, pending the occupation’s compliance and retroactive fulfilment of the past weeks’ obligations,” Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.
“We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them,” he added.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, the first phase of which came into effect on January 19, 33 Israeli hostages were to be released in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.
On Saturday Israel and Hamas completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released.
With their return, 73 out of 251 hostages taken during the attack now remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The statement said Hamas 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 (Gaza) Strip, and failing to allow the entry of humanitarian aid in all its forms as agreed upon,” it added, asserting Hamas had “fulfilled all its obligations”.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim, cited by Al Jazeera, said that Israel is not meeting the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
“In the last three weeks after signing the deal we have been in very serious talks and negotiations with the mediators — the Egyptians, the Qataris, and the United States — about the daily violations by the Israelis of the deal,” Naim said as quoted by Al Jazeera.
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Meanwhile, Israel’s former security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded to Hamas’s announcement. “Hamas’s announcement should have one real-life response: a massive fire attack 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 Hamas’s hands in Gaza,” he said in a post on X.
“We must return to war and destroy,” Gvir wrote.
Many Palestinian civilians once they returned back to their houses in Rafah and in the eastern areas of Gaza have been shot and killed by the Israeli forces, while the number of wounded Palestinian patients who were evacuated, as well the humanitarian aid trucks that have entered Gaza, were fewer than what had been promised in the ceasefire agreement.
This development comes after the latest statements made by US President Donald Trump, who has completely raised concerns about the sustainability of the ceasefire deal.
