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LAST UPDATE | 13 Feb
HAMAS HAS CONFIRMED that it is committed to honouring a truce with Israel that has come under severe strain in recent days, adding that it planned to proceed with the next captives swap this weekend as planned.
The Palestinian militant group had agreed under the deal to free three more hostages on Saturday, but said this week that it was suspending the handover because of what it described as Israeli violations of the terms.
Israel hit back, saying that if Hamas failed to free “three live hostages” on schedule, it would resume its war in Gaza.
“If those three are not released, if Hamas does not return our hostages, by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end,” said government spokesman David Mencer.
“We are keen to implement it (the ceasefire) and oblige the occupation to fully abide by it,” Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said, adding that mediators were pushing for Israel “to resume the exchange process on Saturday”.
The militant group said Egyptian and Qatari mediators have affirmed that they will work to “remove all hurdles” and that it would implement the truce deal.
Hamas later said in a statement that it was committed to carrying out the next exchange “according to the specified timetable”.
The statement indicated three more Israeli hostages would be freed on Saturday.
Hamas’s move should allow the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to continue for now, but its future remains in doubt.
A Palestinian source said mediators had obtained from Israel a “promise… to put in place a humanitarian protocol starting from this morning”, which would allow construction equipment and temporary housing into the devastated territory.
Egyptian state-linked media said heavy equipment and trucks carrying mobile homes were ready to enter Gaza from Egypt on Thursday, with images showing a row of bulldozers on the Egyptian side of the border.
However, Israel later said they would not be allowed to enter through the crossing.
“There is no entry of caravans (mobile homes) or heavy equipment into the Gaza Strip, and there is no coordination for this,” Omer Dostri, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote on X.
“No goods are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing,” Dostri added.
Hamas has previously accused Israel of holding up the delivery of heavy machinery needed to clear the vast amount of rubble littering the territory.
Israel has called up military reservists to brace for a possible re-eruption of war in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet the Saturday deadline to free further Israeli hostages.
The truce faces a much bigger challenge in the coming weeks.
US President Donald Trump had warned earlier this week that “hell” would break loose if the Palestinian militant group failed to release “all” the remaining hostages by noon on Saturday.
If fighting resumes, Israeli Defence 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 realisation of US President Trump’s vision for Gaza,” he added.
Trump, whose return to the White House has emboldened the Israeli far right, 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 Gaza 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.
Analyst Mairav Zonszein of International Crisis Group said that despite their public disputes, Israel and Hamas were still interested in maintaining the truce and have not “given up on anything yet”.
“They’re just playing power games,” she told AFP.
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,” the ICRC said.
Additional reporting from AFP.
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