Israel placed its military on the “highest level of alert” after Hamas canceled the next phase of its plan to release hostages.
Tensions surged after Hamas accused Israel of breaking the terms of the ceasefire deal on Monday.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, said in a post on X that the handover of the prisoners “who were scheduled to be released next Saturday… will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively.”
“We affirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation commits to them,” he added. In response to that message, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the country’s military to “prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza.”
Katz used the same argument Obeida used as he said the postponement was a “complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages,” CNN reported.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right former minister of national security, said in a statement of his own on Monday that Israel should respond with a “massive attack on Gaza.”
The statement reads, “Hamas’ announcement must have one real-life response: a massive 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’ hands in Gaza.”
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the terms of the agreement several times throughout the first phase of it, raising questions about the viability of any sort of ceasefire. This one took 15 months to reach.
Hamas released three hostages this past Saturday as part of the fourth hostage exchange in the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on Jan. 19. But there are reportedly still 79 prisoners taken by the militant group on Oct. 7, 2023, who have yet to be released.
Only about 20 of them are scheduled to be released during the current phase of the ceasefire, and eight are allegedly dead. Israel in exchange released 183 Palestinian prisoners, 18 of whom were serving life sentences. The majority of the others had been detained in Gaza since Oct. 7 without public charges against them.
The agreement, which was signed in Qatar last month, stipulated that negotiations for the second phase of the deal were slated to begin on Monday, but there have been complications with that.
On Monday, Gaza’s Government Media Office, which is run by Hamas, said Israel had refused to allow the entry of shelter supplies specified in the ceasefire agreement and would therefore be postponing negotiations.
Source : https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/163220/hamas-hostage-release-canceled-idf
