Hamas announced Monday it would postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges under a fragile Gaza ceasefire accusing Israel of violations, while Israel said its military was readying for “any possible scenario”.
The ceasefire that went into effect on January 19 largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip and saw five groups of Israeli hostages freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.
A spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that the next hostage release, “which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice”, accusing Israel of failing to comply with the terms of the truce.
The spokesman, Abu Ubaida, said the resumption of hostage-prisoner exchanges was “pending the (Israeli) occupation’s compliance and retroactive fulfilment of the past weeks’ obligations”, without specifying.
“We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them,” he said.
The statement was issued as negotiators were due to meet in the coming days in Qatar to discuss the implementation of the truce’s first 42-day phase, as well as potentially the next phases which have yet to be finalised.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Hamas announcement was a “complete violation” of the ceasefire agreement, signalling that fighting could resume.
“I have instructed the IDF (military) to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
Palestinians have no right of return under Gaza plan: Trump
President Donald Trump said Palestinians would have no right of return to Gaza under his US takeover plan, describing his proposal in excerpts of an interview released Monday as a “real estate development for the future.”
Trump told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier that “I would own it” and that there could be as many as six different sites for Palestinians to live outside Gaza under the plan, which the Arab world and others in the international community have rejected.
“No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing,” Trump said when Baier asked if the Palestinians would have the right to return to the enclave, most of which has been reduced to rubble by Israel’s military since October 2023.
“In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable.”
Trump first revealed the shock Gaza plan during a joint news conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, drawing outrage from Palestinians.
The US president pressed his case for Palestinians to be moved out of Gaza, devastated by the Israel-Hamas war, and for Egypt and Jordan to take them.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty flew to Washington in the wake of Trump’s remarks. He met at the State Department on Monday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with neither speaking to the media.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II was set to hold talks with Trump on Tuesday.
In the Fox interview — which will be broadcast Monday after the first half was screened a day earlier — Trump said he would build “beautiful communities” for the more than two million Palestinians who live in Gaza
