Hamas Says It Is Postponing The Next Hostage Release After Israel Violated Several Ceasefire Terms
Hamas said Israel has delayed the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, targeted them with bombings and failed to bring aid.
Due to Israel’s violations of the ceasefire deal, Hamas said it is delaying the release of the next Israeli hostages until further notice.
Hamas said in a statement on Monday, Feb. 10, that it will not release the hostages that it was supposed to on Saturday, Feb. 15, until further notice due to Israel’s repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.
“Over the past three weeks, the resistance leadership has observed the enemy's violations and failure to adhere to the terms of the (ceasefire) agreement, from delaying the return of displaced people to the northern Gaza Strip, targeting them with bombings and gunfire in various areas of the Strip and failing to bring in all forms of aid as agreed upon. Meanwhile, the resistance has fulfilled all its obligations,” the statement said.
Hamas added that it is therefore postponing the hostages' release until Israel is committed to the ceasefire terms and compensates for its past violations.
The first phase of the ceasefire deal, which began on Jan. 19, is supposed to include a pause in fighting, but Israel has been attacking Palestinians in several places in Gaza almost daily, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that since the ceasefire began, Israel has killed at least 119 Palestinians in Gaza , with an average of six people killed daily, and injured more than 901 Palestinians.
Hamas is supposed to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel releasing about 2,000 Palestinians held in its prisons.
Hamas has so far released 21 hostages, and in exchange, Israel released about 730 Palestinians.
Israel should also allow Palestinians to return to north Gaza on Jan. 25 as part of the deal, but it blocked their return until Jan. 27, saying Hamas didn’t prioritize the release of Israeli civilian hostages, specifically a woman named Arbel Yehud, whom Hamas released later on Jan. 30.
Under the deal, 600 trucks of aid should enter Gaza daily and Israel will allow injured Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment through the Rafah crossing.
However, Gaza authorities said that Israel has only allowed 8,500 aid trucks into Gaza instead of the 12,000 that should have entered by now.
In addition, Israel should have allowed 1,000 injured Palestinians to leave Gaza for treatment already, but it only let 120 people leave, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Hamas said it made its announcement five days before Saturday's scheduled hostage release so mediators could pressure Israel to uphold its obligations and “keep the door open for the exchange to take place on time,” Reuters reported.
US president Donald Trump said on Feb. 10 that Hamas should release all the hostages held in Gaza by Saturday at 12 pm or he would cancel the ceasefire and “let hell break out”.
This comes after his repeated calls for the ethnic cleansing, the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial or religious groups from a certain area, of Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump said the US should “take over” and “own” Gaza and Palestinians would be “permanently” moved to another country.
AP reported that Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said Hamas’ delay of the next release of hostages was “a complete violation” of the ceasefire agreement and that he instructed the Israeli military to be on the highest level of alert.
Meanwhile, Israel opened fire on Palestinians in several areas in Rafah on Tuesday, Feb. 11, killing one man, Wafa news reported.
More On The Gaza Ceasefire
Kassy Cho
Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
