Hamas ‘willing to move ahead’ with ceasefire; Houthis threaten to attack if US, Israel displace Gazans

Yemen’s Houthis would immediately take military action if the US and Israel tried to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza, said the Iran-backed group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, in a televised speech on Thursday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza posed a major threat to world peace.

Hamas willing to move ahead with Gaza ceasefire

Hamas signalled on Thursday that a crisis threatening to unravel an already fragile ceasefire in Gaza could be avoided even after trading accusations with Israel this week of ceasefire breaches.

The 42-day ceasefire has appeared close to failure since Hamas on Monday unexpectedly announced it would stop releasing hostages, leading Israel to respond with a threat to return to war.

Hamas said it did not want the deal to collapse, though it rejected what it called the “language of threats and intimidation” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. They have said the ceasefire should be cancelled if the hostages are not released.

“Accordingly, Hamas reaffirms its commitment to implementing the agreement as signed, including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timeline,” said Hamas in a statement.

Hamas, whose Gaza chief leader, Khalil Al-Hayya, is visiting Cairo for talks with Egyptian security officials, also said Egyptian and Qatari mediators would press on with efforts “to remove obstacles and close gaps”.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer later told reporters that three hostages must be released alive by Hamas on Saturday for the ceasefire to continue.

Hamas accused Israel this week of failing to respect stipulations calling for a massive increase in aid deliveries and said it would not hand over the three hostages due to be released on Saturday until the issue was resolved.

Israel has also accused Hamas of breaching the agreement, including on Thursday evening when the military said Hamas had fired a rocket from Gaza that landed in the enclave.

The military subsequently struck the launcher, it said.

A source in the Hamas-run police said the rocket was an unexploded Israeli ordinance that had ignited and fired into the air while it was being moved away from a residential area.

Reuters could not independently verify the claims.

After Hamas announced it would stop releasing hostages, Netanyahu ordered reserves to be called up and threatened to resume combat operations that had been paused for almost a month unless the hostages were returned.

Avi Dichter, a member of Netanyahu’s security Cabinet, told Israeli public radio on Thursday that he did not believe Hamas would be able to get out of the agreement.

“There’s a deal, they won’t be able to give anything less than what is in the deal,” he said. “I don’t believe that Hamas can behave otherwise.”

Egyptian security sources told Reuters they expected heavy construction equipment to enter on Thursday and if that happened then Hamas would release hostages on Saturday.

The standoff between Israel and Hamas has threatened to reignite their conflict, which has devastated Gaza and taken the Middle East to the brink of a wider regional war.

The talks in Cairo have focused on issues such as Israel’s allowing the entry of mobile homes, tents, medical and fuel supplies, and heavy machinery needed for the removal of rubble, said Hamas.

Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza, told Reuters only 73,000 of the required 200,000 tents had arrived in the enclave, while no mobile homes had been permitted so far.

Cogat, the Israeli military agency overseeing aid deliveries into Gaza, said 400,000 tents had so far been allowed in, while countries meant to supply mobile homes had not yet sent them.

International aid officials confirmed that aid was coming in despite considerable logistical problems, though they cautioned that far more was needed.

“We have seen improvement in some ways, but certainly, the response is nowhere near enough to meet the needs of so many people who face so much destruction and loss,” said Shaina Low, an official from the Norwegian Refugee Council based in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Adding to doubts this week about the ceasefire deal has been the hostile reaction in the Arab world to Trump’s comments that Palestinians should be moved from Gaza to allow it to be developed as a waterfront property under US control.

Under the ceasefire, Hamas has so far released 16 Israeli hostages from an initial group of 33 children, women and older men agreed to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first stage of a multiphase deal.

Hamas also freed five Thai hostages in an unscheduled release.

Negotiations on a second phase of the agreement, which mediators had hoped would agree on the release of the remaining hostages as well as the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, were supposed to be already underway in Doha but an Israeli team returned home on Monday, two days after arriving.

The threat to cancel the 42-day ceasefire that formed the basis of the agreement has drawn thousands of Israeli protesters on to the streets this week, calling on the government to stick with the deal to bring the remaining hostages home.

The war in Gaza erupted after a Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 that killed at least 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, and saw more than 250 taken as hostages.

This triggered a relentless Israeli response that has laid waste to the coastal enclave and killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

Yemen’s Houthis say they will attack if US, Israel try to displace Gazans

Yemen’s Houthis would immediately take military action if the US and Israel tried to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza, said the Iran-backed group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, in a televised speech on Thursday.

Houthi said his group would intervene with missiles and drones and attack vessels in the Red Sea if the US and Israel tried to remove Palestinians from Gaza by force.

“I call on all the armed forces to be ready for military intervention if the criminal Trump carries out his threat,” said Houthi.

The Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships off the shores of Yemen since November 2023 in support of Gaza Palestinian militants fighting Israel, disrupting global shipping trade and causing route changes and losses.

The Iran-aligned movement, which controls northern Yemen, has also frequently fired missiles at Israel over the past year in what it says is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Erdoğan says Trump’s Gaza plan is ‘major threat’ to world peace

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza posed a major threat to world peace.

Speaking on Indonesian television broadcaster Narasi, Erdogan addressed Trump’s plan to remove the more than two million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim US control of it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

“I view Trump’s decision to make such an agreement with a murderer like  Netanyahu and his threats as a major threat to world peace,” said Erdoğan.

“At the moment, nobody can take Gaza away from Palestinians, from Gazans. Daring to do something like that is, firstly, a very different threat to world peace.

“My hope is that such mistakes are reversed as soon as possible, and for a global giant like the United States to rapidly turn back from these errors so that global peace can find a way to come out.”

Iran says it can build new nuclear facilities if enemies strike

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that Tehran’s enemies may be able to strike the country’s nuclear centres but they cannot deprive it of its ability to build new ones.

He made his comments after The Washington Post reported that US intelligence believed Israel was likely to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear programme by the middle of the year.

“They threaten us that they will hit nuclear facilities... If you strike a hundred of those we will build a thousand other ones... You can hit the buildings and the places but you cannot hit those who build it,” said Pezeshkian, according to state media.

Trump raised on Monday the possibility of Israel hitting Iran in an interview with Fox News saying he would prefer to make a deal with Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“Everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not to happen,” said Trump.

On Thursday, the commander of Iran’s conventional air force Hamid Vahedi said: “We tell all countries, friends and foes alike, that our country’s doctrine is defensive but we will respond with force against any enemy attack.”

Mediators secure commitment to pursuing Gaza ceasefire

Mediators had secured a commitment from the parties involved to pursue implementation of the Gaza ceasefire, a Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts told Reuters on Thursday.

Israel has called up military reservists to prepare for a possible re-eruption of the war in the Gaza Strip if the Palestinian militant group Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to free further Israeli hostages. DM

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