Hamas threatened o
n Monday to postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges, saying Israel needed to fulfil “its obligations” under a fragile Gaza ceasefire, while Israel said its military was readying for “any possible scenario”.
The Palestinian militant group later said the “door remains open” for the exchange to “proceed as planned”, calling on mediators to act.
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”.
The spokesman, Abu Ubaida, said the resumption of hostage-prisoner exchanges was “pending the (Israeli) occupation’s compliance and retroactive fulfillment of the past weeks’ obligations”.
The group accuses Israel of failing to carry out its commitments under the truce in time and of violating the ceasefire, after the Sunday deaths of three Gazans.
In a later statement, Hamas said it had “intentionally” made the announcement five days before the next exchange to allow “mediators ample time to pressure Israel “towards fulfilling its obligations. The door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies.”
The statements were 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 finalized.
Talks on a second phase were meant to begin the truce’s 16th day, but Israel had refused to send its negotiators to Doha for that.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group said on Monday it had “requested assistance from the mediating countries to help restore and implement the existing deal effectively”.
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.
The military later said that it had raised “the level of readiness” around Gaza, and “decided to significantly reinforce the area”.
Tensions have been running high since a shock proposal by US President Donald Trump to take over the Gaza Strip and remove its more than two million inhabitants.
