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Associated Press

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in Gaza and directed troops to prepare to resume fighting Hamas if the militant group does not release more hostages on Saturday.
Hamas said Monday – and reiterated Tuesday – that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire, including by not allowing an agreed-upon number of tents and other aid into Gaza.
Amid the mounting tensions, US President Donald Trump emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages on Saturday.
After meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump predicted Hamas would not release all the remaining hostages as he had demanded.

“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” the president said of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”
Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas has released 21 hostages in a series of five exchanges for more than 730 Palestinian prisoners. A second phase calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce. However, Trump’s statements about both the pending releases and plans for post-war Gaza have destabilised its fragile architecture.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Netanyahu’s threat referred to the three hostages scheduled for release on Saturday or all the remaining hostages, which would be a departure from the terms of the ceasefire. Netanyahu’s office said it “welcomed President Trump’s demand”.
As Trump spoke to reporters in Washington and reasserted his demands, an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting, said Israel was “sticking to Trump’s announcement regarding the release of the hostages. Namely, that they will all be released on Saturday”.
Netanyahu’s office also said it ordered the military to mobilise troops on and around the Gaza Strip in preparation for scenarios that could arise.
Trump has said Israel should cancel the entire ceasefire if all of the roughly 70 hostages aren’t freed by Saturday. Hamas brushed off his threat Tuesday, doubling down on its claim that Israel has violated the ceasefire and warned that it would only continue releasing hostages if all parties adhered to the ceasefire.

“Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties. This is the only way to bring back prisoners,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday. “The language of threats has no value; it only complicates matters.”
The group later condemned Trump’s White House remarks, saying they amounted to a “call for ethnic cleansing” and accusing Trump of seeking to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people”.
It said in a statement it remained committed to the ceasefire, yet did not address its plans to suspend the hostages releases outlined in the first phase of the agreement.
Trump hosted King Abdullah II in Washington as he escalates pressure on Jordan to take in refugees from Gaza, perhaps permanently, as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East.
“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of US control of Gaza as the Jordanian king stood by.
Abdullah II was asked repeatedly by reporters about Trump’s plan to remake the Middle East, but didn’t make substantive comments. He also did not comment on the idea that a large number of refugees from Gaza could be welcomed in Jordan, where millions of Palestinian refugees already reside.

The king said, however, that Jordan would be willing “right away” to take as many as 2,000 children in Gaza who have cancer or are otherwise ill.
Last week, the top World Health Organization official for Gaza said between 12,000 and 14,000 patients still need medical evacuation from the territory – including 5,000 children.
Palestinians and the international community have seethed over Trump’s recent comments that any Palestinians potentially expelled from Gaza would not have a right to return.
During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas committed to freeing 33 hostages captured in its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, while Israel said it would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The sides have carried out five swaps since Jan. 19.
The war could resume in early March if no agreement is reached on the more complicated second phase of the ceasefire. But if it does, Israel will face a drastically different battlefield.
After forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza in the early stages of the war, Israel allowed many of those displaced people to return to what is left of their homes, posing a new challenge to its ability to move ground troops through the territory.


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Israel-Gaza war

Israel’s Netanyahu threatens to resume Gaza fighting if hostages not released Saturday

An Israeli tank on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, amid the ceasefire. Photo: Reuters

Hostages Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, who were freed on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Jordan’s King Abdullah II meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. Photo: TNS

Destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip. Photo: AP

Gaza truce under strain after Trump’s ‘let hell break out’ warning

Hamas fighters secure an area before handing over three Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on February 8. Photo: AFP

Hamas fighters escort Israeli hostages before handing them over to a Red Cross team in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Released hostage Or Levy is seen with his brother through a window of a helicopter on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Israeli tanks on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza. Photo: Reuters

Israeli soldiers watch over Gaza amid the ceasefire. Photo: Reuters

Displaced Palestinians make their way from central Gaza to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo: AP

Trump’s Gaza plan derails Saudi-Israel ties, researchers say

An electronic billboard shows US President Donald Trump shaking hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday. Photo: AP

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) greets Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa during his arrival at the royal palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 2. Photo: AP

A drone shot shows Palestinians, displaced to the south of the Gaza Strip at Israel’s order during the war, making their way back to their homes in northern Gaza, on January 27. Photo: Reuters

Thai hostage freed from Gaza feels ‘reborn’ after return home

Thai hostage Pongsak Thaenna (left), who was taken in the attack led by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, is embraced by his father at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Freed Thai farmworker Watchara Sriaoun (right) hugs his grandfather Sompong Sriaoun upon returning to his hometown in Thailand’s northeast Udon Thani province on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Thai hostages Bannawat Saethao (right) and Sathian Suwannakham (centre), walk next to the ambassador of Israel to Thailand, Orna Sagiv (left), after they arrive at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Pressure mounts over extending Gaza ceasefire as Israeli forces withdraw from key corridor

A displaced Palestinian man inspects the damage to his home in Gaza City on Sunday, after crossing the Netzarim corridor from southern Gaza into the enclave’s north. Photo: AFP

Hamas fighters escort Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi on a stage before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza on Saturday. Photo: AFP / Getty Images / TNS

Displaced Palestinians cross the Netzarim corridor as they make their way to the northern parts of Gaza on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Trump says US to oversee post-war Gaza, no American troops needed on the ground

People attend a protest against Donald Trump’s plan to resettle Palestinians from Gaza, outside the US consulate in Istanbul on February 6. Photo: Reuters

Palestinians wait to cross the Netzarim corridor from the southern Gaza Strip into the north on January 27. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

News

World

Middle East

Netanyahu’s warning heightened fears that a fragile three-week-old Gaza ceasefire was on the verge of unravelling


Netanyahu’s warning heightened fears that a fragile three-week-old Gaza ceasefire was on the verge of unravelling.
