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Hamas said Thursday that it was ready to publish Israeli hostages this weekend as having the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, after the fragile agreement changed this week, which encouraged more pessimism about its future.
Mahmoud Mardawi, an official in Hamas, said in an SMS that the exchange of hostage-pourrion had to go ahead on Saturday as long as Israel confirmed its end of the agreement. He said that the mediators had told Hamas that Israel said he was engaged in the agreement.
Israel did not immediately comment on this and other Hamas statements describing diplomatic progress. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, consulted security chiefs in southern Israel on Thursday afternoon, said his office.
Egypt and Qatar, alongside the United States, ran into the ceasefire intended to finish more than a year of devastating war. During the first six weeks of the truce, Hamas agreed to release at least 33 hostages in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. At least 21 hostages and 766 Palestinian prisoners have been released since the entry into force of the agreement at the end of January.
But this week, Hamas announced that it would indefinitely suspend the next version of hostages to protest against what it described as Israeli violations of the terms of the truce. Mr. Netanyahu then threatened only that the hostages were released at noon on Saturday, Israel would resume his military campaign “until Hamas is defeated in a conclusive manner”.
President Trump added another complication by demanding that all remaining hostages be released on Saturday or “all hell will break out”. This message seemed to contradict the ceasefire agreement that Mr. Trump had helped make a broker, which stipulates a progressive release of hostages for the Palestinian prisoners.
The mediators between the two parties followed “to delete obstacles and close shortcomings” after recent “positive” talks with senior officials of Egypt and Qatar, Hamas said in a statement published on Thursday. Hamas said Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on the Palestinians during the truce and have not authorized prefabricated houses and heavy machines to enter Gaza, in violation of the terms of the agreement.
Omer Dostri, Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesperson, said in a statement on Thursday that Israel did not authorize prefabricated housing or heavy construction equipment, without explaining the justification. He didn’t say if it could change.
At least 60,000 prefabricated dwellings and 200,000 tents should be delivered to Gaza during the first phase of the agreement, in addition to the equipment for the release of the rubble, according to a copy of the agreement seen by the New York Times. Hamas complained that only a small number of the minimum of 200,000 tents arrived in Gaza.
Three Israeli officials and two mediators, who spoke under the guise of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, said this week that Hamas’ allegations that they do not receive enough tents were correct. But Cogat, the Israeli military unity that oversees aid deliveries, said in a written response that Hamas accusations were “completely false”.
Even if the current road dams are overcome, however, the future of the truce and how long it would still be far from being certain. The first phase is expected to expire in early March, and Israel and Hamas have not yet agreed on the conditions to extend the agreement.
Israel and Hamas were to start indirect discussions on the second phase of the agreement last week, which would include an end to war and the withdrawal of the Israeli Gaza forces. But Thursday, Dostri said that Israel “was currently not negotiations during the second phase of the agreement”.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, after Palestinian activists launched an attack on Israel in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostage, mainly civilians. The Israel campaign in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 people in the Palestinian enclave, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Stressing the fragility of the current truce, a rocket has been launched from Gaza before falling back into the enclave, the Israeli army announced on Thursday. Hamas has not commented, but its projectiles have sometimes accidentally landed in Gaza, causing victims. Israeli forces then hit the rocket launcher, the army said.
Despite the dead end, the fragile ceasefire was still held and certain tents and other humanitarian aid entered Gaza. The United Nations rescue agency said 801 trucks on Wednesday in Gaza that day to “seize all the opportunities offered by the ceasefire to increase”.
But the emergency coordinator in Gaza for the doctors of the Borders Without Aid Agency warned that humanitarian deliveries did not occur quickly enough and that “people still lack basic items”.
“We still do not see the massive scale of humanitarian aid necessary in the north of Gaza”, the emergency coordinator, Caroline Seguin, written in a dispatch of the territory which was published online on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump’s recent ideas for the future of the Middle East have repercussions in the region. During last week, he said on several occasions that the United States should resume Gaza, transform it into “Riviera du Middle East” and not allow displaced Palestinians to return to the territory once he has been rebuilt.
The Palestinians, other Arabs and many experts in the field rejected Mr. Trump’s proposal as ethnic cleaning. Such a decision to the empty Gaza would most likely prevent any future chance from a Palestinian state there.
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad Contributed reports.
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