Israel Weighs Hamas’s Latest Violation: Is it a Deal Breaker?

Even before Hamas on Monday threatened to halt the release of hostages, President Trump said he was losing “patience” with the terror organization. As a crisis deepens over a Gaza deal, will mediators be forced to alter terms of the cease-fire agreement?Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government is weighing Hamas’s announced intention to cancel Saturday’s release of three hostages “until further notice.” Jerusalem officials are yet to determine if the deal breaker is a temporary measure to enhance the terrorist group’s bargaining position or an unbridgeable crisis that could prompt a return to fighting. “Hamas’s announcement,” the defense minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement, “is a complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages. I instructed the Israeli military to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza.”Earlier, a Hamas spokesman, known as Abu Ubeida, said in a message posted on Telegram that a “handover of the Zionist prisoners who were scheduled to be released next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice and until the occupation commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively.”Hamas is yet to release 74 hostages taken on October 7, 2023. According to the first, 42-day phase of a deal launched on January 19, Hamas was to free three hostages each Saturday in return for the release of hundreds of terrorists held in Israeli prisons. After multiple rounds, 17 hostages are yet to be released in the current phase. Eight of them are known to be dead, though Hamas so far has refused to list which ones. “I don’t think there’s any coincidence in the schedule that they’re being released, where they obviously released the ones they thought were in the best condition first, then over time you’re starting to see the impact of this,” Secretary Rubio told SiriusXM’s Scott Jennings on Monday. The appearances of the three hostages who were released on Saturday — Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi, and Or Levy — sent shockwaves through Israel and around the world. They later told family members that they were held in near-starvation conditions, in darkened tunnels with no access to the outside world.Just before releasing them, Hamas paraded the hostages in front of cameras and cheering crowds, while International Red Cross representatives sat on the stage alongside Hamas members. Mr. Sharabi was forced to say he was happy to finally reunite with his wife and child, even though they were murdered on October 7. “I know we’re supposed to have a deal,” Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday after comparing the released hostages to Holocaust survivors. The hostage releases are “dribbling,” he added, so “I don’t know how long we can take that.” At some point, he added, “we’re gonna lose our patience.” Hamas argued that Israel is violating the deal by “delaying the return of displaced people to the northern Gaza Strip, targeting them with shelling and gunfire in various areas of the Gaza Strip, and not allowing relief supplies.”Over the weekend, the Israel Defense Force fired warning shots at Gazans who entered a buffer zone 300 yards away from Israeli towns and Kibbutzim near the border in violation of the agreement. Hamas’s main beef, though, has reportedly been the allegation that Israel is delaying the supply of tents and temporary housing for Gazans. “Towards the end of last week, we expressed our concerns that we need to be able to expedite the flow of shelters, particularly given the weather conditions in Gaza,” a spokesman for the United Nations, Farhan Haq, said Monday. Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet is scheduled to convene Tuesday morning to discuss the latest Hamas delay, and whether to proceed to the second phase of the hostage deal. Israeli officials are telling reporters that some issues might be bridgeable, while others may not. Mr. Trump is scheduled to host King Abdulah II of Jordan on Tuesday to discuss a Gaza plan according to which America would rebuild the Strip after resettling its residents elsewhere. Gazans will not be able to return after they are evacuated, Mr. Trump told Fox News in an interview to be broadcast Monday evening. “They’re going to have much better housing,” the president said. “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.”President Sisi of Egypt is scheduled to arrive at Washington later this week. Both Cairo and Amman have objected to the Trump plan, and Egypt announced an emergency Arab summit on February 27, with the aim of unifying the Arab world against Washington’s Gaza plan. “I’m talking about starting to build, and I think I could make a deal with Jordan, I think I could make a deal with Egypt,” Mr. Trump said. “You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year.”

Israel Weighs Hamas’s Latest Violation: Is it a Deal Breaker?

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