Hamas suspends release of hostages; Palestinians wouldn’t have right to return to Gaza, says Trump

US President Donald Trump said Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, according to excerpts from a Fox News interview.

The UN human rights office on Monday described images of emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.

Hamas suspends hostage releases, accusing Israel of ceasefire violations

Hamas on Monday announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what the Palestinian militant group said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.

The unexpected announcement came amid growing doubts over an already fragile ceasefire even as families of the Israeli hostages urge the government to stick to the deal and Gazans try to start rebuilding their lives in the shattered enclave.

Hamas was to release some Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and other Palestinians held in Israeli detention as had happened over the past three weeks.

Hamas military wing spokesperson Abu Ubaida said Israeli violations had included Israel delaying Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, targeting Palestinians with shelling and gunfire and stopping aid from entering the strip.

The ceasefire has largely held since it began on 19 January, although there have been some incidents where Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. The amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza has increased since the ceasefire, say aid agencies.

But Hamas’ Ubaida said the next scheduled release of hostages on Saturday would be postponed until Israel complied with the ceasefire agreement and “compensates for the past weeks”.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hamas’ announcement violated the ceasefire deal and that he had instructed the military to prepare at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and to defend Israeli communities.

An Israeli official said the prime minister would convene the security Cabinet on Monday following Hamas’ declaration. The Cabinet of select ministers, including defence, national security and foreign affairs, was expected to meet on Tuesday.

Two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Monday that mediators feared a breakdown of the ceasefire agreement. Qatar and Egypt brokered the deal alongside the US.

A group representing hostage families called on mediators to stop the deal from breaking down, while another group representing Israeli military veterans accused the government of intentionally sabotaging the ceasefire agreement.

So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be released in the first 42-day phase of the deal have come home, as well as five Thai hostages who were returned in an unscheduled release.

In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of prisoners and detainees, ranging from prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks to Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.

But Hamas has accused Israel of dragging its feet on allowing aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the agreement, a charge Israel has rejected as untrue.

In turn, Israel has accused Hamas of not respecting the order in which the hostages were to be released and of orchestrating abusive public displays before large crowds when they were handed over to the Red Cross.

Earlier, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said an Israeli delegation had returned from ceasefire talks in Qatar, amid already growing doubts over the Egyptian and Qatari-brokered process to end the war.

There were no immediate details on the reason for the return from the talks, which are intended to agree on the basis for a second stage of the multiphase ceasefire agreement and hostage-for-prisoner exchange reached last month.

A Palestinian official close to the discussions said progress was being held up by mistrust between the two sides, which have accused each other of breaching the terms of the ceasefire.

US President Donald Trump’s statements that Palestinians should be moved out of Gaza, leaving the coastal enclave to be developed as a waterfront real estate project under US control have upended expectations for the postwar future.

Netanyahu endorsed Trump’s comments when he returned from a visit to Washington at the weekend, causing irritation in Egypt, where security sources said Israel was “putting up roadblocks” to the smooth progress of the ceasefire deal, including delays to the withdrawal of its troops and continuing aerial surveillance.

Talks on a second stage of the ceasefire deal, to agree on the release of the remaining hostages and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, began last week but have shown little sign of serious progress.

“There is a sense of mistrust, especially as Hamas sees a lack of implementation of the first phase of the deal when it comes to the humanitarian protocol and the allowing of the materials into Gaza as per the agreement,” said the official.

Israeli public opinion was shocked by the emaciated appearance of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, the three hostages who were released on Saturday, which has complicated progress on the deal.

Trump says Palestinians would not have a right to return to Gaza 

Trump said Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, according to excerpts from a Fox News interview.

In a transcript released on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying: “We give them billions and billions of dollars a year.”

Asked if Palestinians would have the right to return, Trump told Fox: “No, they wouldn’t because they’re going to have much better housing.

“I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable. It would be years before it could happen.”

In a shock announcement last week, Trump proposed resettling the 2.2 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip permanently. His remarks to Fox were the first to say they will have no right of return.

In portions of the interview broadcast on Sunday, Trump reiterated his plan to buy and own Gaza.

In the latest excerpt released on Monday, Trump told Fox that between two and six communities could be built for the Palestinians “a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”

‘Emaciated’ hostages and detainees reflect dire conditions in captivity - UN

The UN human rights office on Monday described images of emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.

The gaunt, pale faces of hostages and detainees have drawn attention since the latest releases over the weekend, with Trump comparing those held in Gaza by Hamas to Holocaust survivors.

“The images we have seen of Israeli hostages released over the weekend show signs of ill-treatment and severe malnourishment, reflecting very dire conditions they were subjected to in Gaza,” said Thameen Al-Kheetan, UN human rights office spokesperson, in a statement to journalists.

“We are also deeply concerned by the public parading of hostages released by Hamas in Gaza, including statements apparently made under duress during release.”

He referred to Hamas-directed handover ceremonies attended by large crowds in the Gaza Strip in which hostages were flanked by militants armed with automatic rifles.

Al-Kheetan said the appearance of Palestinian detainees pointed to the “severe conditions” in which they were held in Israel. He also voiced serious concern about the manner in which Palestinian detainees had been released, without elaborating.

Israeli police raid popular Palestinian bookshop in East Jerusalem

Israeli police have raided a well-known Palestinian bookshop in East Jerusalem, accusing its owners of selling books that incited terrorism, including a children’s colouring book entitled From the Jordan to the Sea.

Two of the owners, Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna, were arrested on Sunday and held overnight. A separate branch, located in the nearby American Colony Hotel, was also raided.

Closed-circuit television footage showed police searching the shelves and pictures shared on social media showed books scattered over the floor of the shop. Mahmoud Muna’s 11-year-old daughter Layla was present when police carried out the raid, her mother May Muna said.

The Educational Bookshop, close to the Old City, has been a Jerusalem landmark for decades, with a wide selection of books in Arabic and English, ranging from literary fiction to non-fiction works on the Middle East and world politics.

Popular with foreign diplomats, aid workers and tourists, the bookshop has also played an important part in Palestinian intellectual life and the arrests were seen as a blow against the wider cultural environment of the city.

“I, like many diplomats, enjoy browsing for books at Educational Bookshop,” wrote German Ambassador Steffen Seibert on social media platform X. “I know its owners, the Muna family, to be peace-loving proud Palestinian Jerusalemites.”

The Jerusalem district police confirmed officers had arrested two residents of East Jerusalem “suspected of selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism in bookstores”.

Abbas revokes payment system of financial allowances for families of prisoners 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a decree revoking the payment system of “financial allowances for the families of Palestinian prisoners, martyrs and injured”, the text of the decree published by the official gazette showed. DM

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