JERUSALEM: Palestinian sources reported progress on Thursday in efforts to salvage the ceasefire in Gaza from its worst crisis yet, with a view to ensuring that Hamas releases Israeli hostages this weekend as planned.
The truce that has largely halted fighting in the Israel-Hamas war was plunged into uncertainty after the militant group said it would not release hostages on Saturday, citing Israeli violations.
Israel hit back, saying that if Hamas failed to free captives on schedule, it would resume its war in Gaza.
“There is progress,” one source told AFP, adding that mediators had obtained from Israel a “promise... to put in place a humanitarian protocol starting from this morning.”
“Hamas has confirmed to Egyptian officials its commitment... to conducting the sixth exchange of prisoners on time, on Saturday, as soon as Israel honors its commitment,” another source said.
US President Donald Trump had warned that “hell” would break loose if the Palestinian militant group failed to release “all” the hostages by then.
If fighting resumes, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “the new Gaza war... will not end without the defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages.”
“It will also allow the realization of US President Trump’s vision for Gaza,” he added.
Trump sparked global outcry with a proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and to move its 2.4 million residents to Egypt or Jordan.
The hints of progress came as mediators Qatar and Egypt pushed to salvage the ceasefire agreement that came into effect last month, while Hamas said its top negotiator was in Cairo.
The truce, currently in its first phase, has seen Israeli captives released in small groups in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody.
The warring sides, which have yet to agree on the next phases of the truce, have traded accusations of violations, spurring concern that the violence could resume.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Hamas to proceed with the planned release and “avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza.”
Israel has repeatedly vowed to defeat Hamas and free all the hostages since the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.
Analyst Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group told AFP that despite their public disputes, the warring sides were still interested in maintaining the truce and have not “given up on anything yet.”
“They’re just playing power games,” she said.
In Tel Aviv, Israeli student Mali Abramovitch, 28, said that it was “terrible to think” that the next group of hostages would not be released “because Israel allegedly violated the conditions, which is nonsense.”
“We can’t let them (Hamas) play with us like this... It’s simply not acceptable.”
Last week’s hostage release sparked anger in Israel and beyond after Hamas paraded three emaciated hostages before a crowd and forced them to speak. Hamas, meanwhile, has accused Israel of failing to meet its aid commitments under the agreement.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis, 48-year-old Saleh Awad told AFP he felt “anxiety and fear,” saying that “Israel is seeking any pretext to reignite the war... and displace” the territory’s inhabitants.
Hamas has insisted it remains “committed to the ceasefire,” and said its chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya was in Cairo on Wednesday for meetings and to monitor “the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.”
Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News, citing an Egyptian official, said that mediators in Cairo and Doha were “intensifying their diplomatic efforts in an attempt to save the Gaza ceasefire agreement.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage-prisoner swaps, urged the parties to maintain the truce.
“Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on it,” including “all of the remaining hostages” and Gazans who “need respite from violence and access to life-saving humanitarian aid,” the ICRC said.
Trump’s proposal for Gaza and for moving its more than two million residents to Jordan or Egypt would, according to experts, violate international law, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it “revolutionary.”
Hamas called for worldwide “solidarity marches” over the weekend to denounce “the plans to displace our Palestinian people from their land.”
Defense Minister Katz last week ordered the Israeli army to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza. The military said it had already begun reinforcing its troops around Gaza.
Trump reaffirmed his Saturday deadline for the hostage release while hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday.
In a phone call Wednesday, Abdullah and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said they were united in supporting the “full implementation” of the ceasefire, “the continued release of hostages and prisoners, and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid,” according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,222 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
