Mediators Qatar and Egypt were pushing to salvage the ceasefire agreement that came into effect last month, a Palestinian source and a diplomat familiar with the talks told AFP, while Hamas said its top negotiator was in Cairo. The truce has largely halted more than 15 months of fighting and seen Israeli captives released in small groups in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody. But the deal, currently in its 42-day first phase, has come under increasing strain.
The warring sides, which have yet to agree on the next phases of the truce, have traded accusations of violations, spurring concern that the violence could resume. Katz said Israel would resume its war if Hamas fails to free captives on Saturday, when a sixth hostage-prisoner exchange was scheduled under the terms of the agreement.
Hamas has said it would postpone the release citing Israeli violations, and hours later, Trump warned that “hell” would break loose if the Palestinian militant failed to release “all” hostages by then. If fighting resumes, Katz said, “the new Gaza war will not end without the defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages.” “It will also allow the realisation of US President Trump’s vision for Gaza,” he added.Israel has repeatedly vowed to defeat Hamas and release all hostages since the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war. Analyst Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group told AFP that despite their public disputes, the warring sides were still interested in maintaining the truce and have not “given up on anything yet”. “They’re just playing power games,” she said.
Trump had proposed taking over Gaza and moving its more than two million residents to Jordan or Egypt — a plan experts say would violate international law but which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “revolutionary”.
Hamas called for worldwide “solidarity marches” over the weekend to denounce “the plans to displace our Palestinian people from their land”. Israel’s Katz last week ordered the army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza. The military said it has already begun reinforcing its troops around Gaza.
Trump reaffirmed his Saturday deadline for the hostage release when hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday. In a phone call Wednesday, Abdullah and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said they were united in supporting the “full implementation” of the ceasefire, “the continued release of hostages and prisoners, and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid”, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,222 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures which the UN considers reliable from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
