Netanyahu threatens to resume fighting in Gaza if hostages aren’t released Saturday
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JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip and resume the fight against Hamas if the militant group does not go ahead with the next scheduled release of hostages Saturday.
Hamas reiterated Tuesday that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the cease-fire, including by not allowing enough tents and other aid into Gaza.
President Trump has emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages Saturday, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether Netanyahu’s threat referred to the release of all hostages, or just the three scheduled for release Saturday. Netanyahu’s office said it “welcomed President Trump’s demand.”
A Palestinian woman who lost 10 children and her husband shelters in her shattered Gaza home, where four of her youngest remain buried under rubble.
An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting, said Israel was “sticking to Trump’s announcement regarding the release of the hostages. Namely, that they will all be released on Saturday.”
Trump’s statements about the pending releases and plans for postwar Gaza have destabilized the cease-fire’s fragile framework.
Netanyahu’s office also said it ordered the military to mobilize troops in and around the Gaza Strip in preparation for scenarios that could arise.
Hamas continues to free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, holding to cease-fire terms. But the militant group’s grip on Gaza remains strong
So far, Hamas has released 21 hostages in a series of exchanges for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Trump has said Israel should revoke the cease-fire if all of the roughly 70 hostages held by Hamas aren’t freed by Saturday. Hamas on Tuesday brushed off his threat, doubling down on its contention that Israel has violated the cease-fire.
Hamas has released three gaunt Israeli hostages and Israel freed 183 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom also appeared gaunt, as part of a cease-fire.
“Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties. This is the only way to bring back prisoners,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday. “The language of threats has no value; it only complicates matters.”
Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and escalated pressure on the Arab nation to take in Gazan refugees — perhaps permanently — as part of his controversial notion to “own” Gaza. Hamas on Tuesday said Trump’s remarks amounted to a “call for ethnic cleansing.”
Trump reimagines Gaza as a ‘Riviera’ without Palestinians. Israel’s Arab neighbors say no to that.
During the first six-week phase of the cease-fire, Hamas committed to freeing 33 of the hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel, while Israel said it would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The sides have carried out five swaps since Jan. 19.
A more complicated second phase of the cease-fire calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce.
If Israel resumes the war, it will face a drastically different battlefield. After forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza in the early stages of the war, Israel allowed many of those displaced people to return to what is left of their homes, posing a new challenge to its ability to move ground troops through the territory.
In Gaza, much of the territory has been obliterated in the Israeli offensive triggered by the 2023 Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw 250 taken hostage. Israel’s bombardment and ground attacks have killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to local authorities, who do not differentiate between civilians and combatants in their tally but say the majority of the dead are women and children.
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