Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages by noon on Saturday, a fragile ceasefire in Gaza would end and the Israeli army would resume its offensive in the Palestinian enclave until the militant group was defeated.
Donald Trump restated his plan for the US to take over Gaza during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday and insisted that Jordan would house displaced Palestinians, despite the king’s opposition to the proposal.
The United Nations said on Tuesday aid flows into Gaza had risen significantly since a ceasefire took effect last month including for items such as tents that had faced Israeli restrictions, even as fears rise that the fragile calm might not last.
Ceasefire ends if hostages not returned on Saturday, says Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages by noon on Saturday a fragile ceasefire in Gaza would end and the Israeli army would resume its offensive in the Palestinian enclave until the militant group was defeated.
“In light of Hamas’ announcement of its decision to violate the agreement and not release our hostages, last night I ordered the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to gather forces inside and around the Gaza Strip,” said Netanyahu, speaking after a meeting of his security Cabinet.
“This operation is being carried out at this time. It will be completed in the very near future,” he said in a statement.
Hamas has begun releasing some hostages gradually under the first phase of a ceasefire reached last month, but said on Monday it would not free any more until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the terms with several deadly shootings as well as hold-ups of some aid deliveries in Gaza.
US President Donald Trump, a close ally of Israel, said in response that Hamas should release all the hostages held by the militant group by midday on Saturday or he would propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which took effect on 19 January.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon — the ceasefire will end and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” said Netanyahu.
It was not immediately clear if Netanyahu meant Hamas should release all hostages that are held in Gaza or just those that had been expected to be released on Saturday under the ceasefire.
His office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comment on the prime minister’s remarks.
A Hamas official said on Tuesday that Israeli hostages could be brought home only if the ceasefire was respected, dismissing the “language of threats” after Trump said he would “let hell break out” if they were not freed.
“Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the [Israeli] prisoners. The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Israel denies holding back aid supplies and says it has fired on people who disregard warnings not to approach Israeli troop positions.
So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be freed in the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire 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, including prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks and Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.
A group representing families of hostages urged Netanyahu to stick to the ceasefire agreement.
“We must not go backwards. We cannot allow the hostages to waste away in captivity,” said the hostages forum in a statement.
There are 76 hostages still in Gaza, more than 35 of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli media.
Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, has been devastated by Israel’s military offensive. The enclave is short of food, water and shelter, and in need of billions in foreign aid.
More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, the Gaza health ministry says, and nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million population internally displaced by the conflict.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities and about 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, Israeli tallies show.
Gazans interviewed by Reuters criticised Trump for saying he would be prepared for “hell” to break out if all the Israeli hostages were not released by noon on Saturday.
“Hell worse than what we have already? Hell worse than killing? The destruction, all the practices and human crimes that have occurred in the Gaza Strip have not happened anywhere else in the world,” said Jomaa Abu Kosh, a Palestinian from Rafah in southern Gaza, standing beside demolished homes.
Trump meets Jordan’s king, repeats Gaza takeover plan
Trump restated his plan for the US to take over Gaza during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday and insisted that Jordan would house displaced Palestinians, despite the king’s opposition to the proposal.
The US president, speaking alongside the Arab country’s ruler in the Oval Office, signalled he would not budge on his idea that involves moving the Gaza Strip’s shell-shocked residents and transforming the war-ravaged territory into what he billed a “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Trump has infuriated the Arab world by saying that Palestinians would not have the right of return to their homes under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, which has been devastated by an Israeli offensive.
“We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it. We’re going to get it going eventually, where a lot of jobs are going to be created for the people in the Middle East,” said Trump in the Oval Office, saying his plan would “bring peace” to the region.
Despite the views of his Jordanian counterpart, Trump said Jordan, as well as Egypt, would ultimately agree to house displaced Gazans. Both countries rely on Washington for economic and military aid.
“I believe we’ll have a parcel of land in Jordan. I believe we’ll have a parcel of land in Egypt,” said Trump. “We may have someplace else, but I think when we finish our talks, we’ll have a place where they’re going to live very happily and very safely.”
Trump, who has suggested he could consider withholding aid to Jordan, said he was not using support as a threat.
“We contribute a lot of money to Jordan, and to Egypt by the way — a lot to both. But I don’t have to threaten that. I think we’re above that,” said Trump.
King Abdullah has previously said he rejects any moves to annex land and displace Palestinians.
While the two leaders were cordial with each other, Trump’s comments about Gaza put King Abdullah in an awkward position, given the sensitivity in Jordan of the Palestinians’ claim of a right to return to the lands that many fled during the war that surrounded the creation of Israel in 1948.
Trump at one point appeared to prompt King Abdullah to say he would take in Palestinians from Gaza, but the king said he would do what is best for his country, and said Arab nations would come to Washington with a counterproposal.
“The point is how to make this work in a way that is good for everybody,” he said, appearing uncomfortable, without explicitly supporting or opposing Trump’s plan.
Sandwiched between Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel and the occupied West Bank, Jordan is already home to more than two million Palestinian refugees in its population of 11 million, their status and number long providing a source of anxiety for the country’s leadership.
Gaza aid flows rise during ceasefire - UN
The United Nations said on Tuesday aid flows into Gaza had risen significantly since a ceasefire took effect last month including for items such as tents that had faced Israeli restrictions, even as fears rise that the fragile calm might not last.
After the UN update, witnesses at the Egypt-Gaza border said some aid items such as clothing, medical supplies and soft drinks were being held up on trucks waiting to enter the enclave after checks by Israeli officials.
Some truck drivers near Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt added that construction materials and tents had been blocked there since the start of the ceasefire.
Hamas began releasing some hostages gradually under the first phase of a ceasefire, but said on Monday it would free no more until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the terms with several deadly shootings as well as hold-ups of some aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.
Israel denies holding back aid supplies and says it has fired on people who disregard warnings not to approach Israeli troop positions.
Hamas said alleged Israeli violations included stopping some humanitarian aid from entering Gaza as stipulated in the deal, such as 60,000 mobile houses and 200,000 tents as well as heavy machinery to remove rubble and fuel.
Earlier on Tuesday, UN humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke told a Geneva press briefing that since the truce took effect on 19 January, “we have been able to scale up humanitarian operations significantly with food, medical and shelter supplies and other aid during the ceasefire period”.
Earlier this month, aid officials said there were impediments to importing some items like shelter equipment which Israel said had the potential for "dual use" - civilian or military. Palestinians have been appealing for billions of dollars in emergency aid, including for units to house people made homeless by Israeli air strikes and bombardment.
Israel denies allegations that it has stopped certain supplies including tent poles from entering Gaza on aid trucks.
“Unfortunately, no tents or any other type of aid have been allowed in,” Jordanian aid truck driver Ahmed Hussein told Reuters in Arish in Egypt’s Sinai region bordering Gaza.
“Trucks leave from Durgham in Arish here, head to the crossing, and more than half of them are sent back. Only a few dozen are getting through,” he said.
Cogat, the Israeli military agency overseeing the aid deliveries into Gaza, said in a statement sent to Reuters that more than 100,000 tents had entered the coastal enclave during the ceasefire so far.
Israeli military reinforces south after Netanyahu threatens to end ceasefire
The Israeli military announced on Tuesday it was deploying additional forces in the country’s south, including mobilising reservists.
The statement came after Netanyahu warned the ceasefire in Gaza would end and the military would resume fighting Hamas if hostages were not released on Saturday.
Hamas on Monday said it would stop releasing hostages until further notice over what it said were Israeli breaches of the ceasefire.
Yemeni Houthis ‘ready to launch attacks on Israel if war resumes’
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, who control most of western Yemen including the capital, were ready to mount attacks on Israel if it resumed its assault on Gaza and did not commit to the ceasefire deal, said the group’s leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, on Tuesday.
The Houthis had attacked Israeli and other vessels in the Red Sea, disturbing global shipping lanes, in what they said were acts of solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians during Israel’s war with Hamas.
“Our hands are on the trigger and we are ready to immediately escalate against the Israeli enemy if it returns to escalation in the Gaza Strip,” said al-Houthi in a televised speech.
Abbas risks Palestinian backlash over overhaul of prisoner payments
President Mahmoud Abbas faced criticism from allies and foes alike on Tuesday over a decree overhauling payments to families of Palestinians killed or jailed by Israel, a move to satisfy a US demand that is likely to deepen his unpopularity.
Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Abbas (89) issued the decree on Monday overturning the system, long condemned by critics as rewarding attacks on Israel but viewed among Palestinians as a vital source of welfare for detainees’ families.
The sudden announcement seems aimed at removing a potential source of tension with Trump and an attempt to preserve the PA’s role as Washington bolsters its pro-Israeli approach to the conflict, said Palestinian analysts.
“The goal is to try to open a good page with Trump at a time when Trump has completely turned his back on the Palestinians by calling for displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza, said Hani al-Masri, a Palestinian political analyst in Ramallah.
Scrapping the system of salary-type payments, dubbed “pay for slay” by critics — a label rejected by Palestinians — has been a major demand of successive US administrations. Abbas had long resisted pressure to halt the programme.
The PA will instead provide support to families of prisoners via a social welfare network, according to need rather than their length of imprisonment. Qadura Fares, the Palestinian official responsible for prisoner affairs, said between 35,000 and 40,000 families would be affected.
Fares, a member of Abbas’ Fatah Movement, told a news conference “a fireball” had been thrown in Abbas’ lap, underlining the huge sensitivities of ending a system introduced under the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the 1990s.
Beneficiaries have included families in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Palestinians living in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere — as well as those considered for release under the phased Gaza war ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Israel’s foreign ministry dismissed the change as a ruse, saying payments would continue through other channels.
Syria’s president calls Trump Gaza plan a ‘serious crime’
Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in remarks broadcast on Monday he believed Trump’s plan to resettle Palestinians from Gaza and take over the Strip “is a serious crime that will ultimately fail”.
In an interview with The Rest Is Politics, a UK podcast, Sharaa, an Islamist whose militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was once an affiliate of al Qaeda, said Trump’s proposal would not succeed.
“I believe no power can drive people from their land. Many countries have tried to do it and they have all failed, especially during the recent war in Gaza over the past year and a half,” he said.
Sharaa, declared president for a transitional phase after his group’s fighters led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, said it would be neither “wise nor morally or politically right” for Trump to lead an effort to force Palestinians out of their land.
“Over 80 years of this conflict, all attempts to displace them have failed; those who left have regretted their decision. The Palestinian lesson that every generation has learned is the importance of holding on to their land,” he added.
UN chief: Renewed hostilities in Gaza must be avoided at all costs
UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged Hamas to continue with the planned release of hostages on Tuesday, a day after the Palestinian militant group announced its intention to halt the exchange.
“We must avoid at all costs the resumption of hostilities in Gaza that would lead to an immense tragedy,” he said in a statement.
Hamas on Monday announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what it called Israeli violations of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, raising the risk of reigniting the conflict. DM
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