By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Alexander Cornwell
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday the ceasefire in Gaza would end and the military would resume fighting Hamas until it was defeated if the Palestinian militant group did not release hostages by midday Saturday.
Following Netanyahu’s ultimatum, Hamas issued a statement renewing its commitment to the ceasefire and accusing Israel of jeopardizing the ceasefire.
The Israeli announcement came after Netanyahu met with several key ministers, including defence, foreign affairs and national security, who he said gave the ultimatum their full support.
After nearly 16 months of war, Hamas has gradually been releasing hostages since the first phase of a ceasefire began on January 19, but on Monday said it would not free any more until further notice over accusations Israel was violating the deal.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon – the ceasefire will end and the IDF (military) will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” Netanyahu said.
It was not immediately clear if Netanyahu meant Hamas should release all hostages held in Gaza or just the three who 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.
U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally of Israel, has said that Hamas should release all of the hostages by Saturday.
The prime minister also said he had ordered the military to gather forces inside and around Gaza, with the military announcing shortly after it was deploying additional forces to Israel’s south including the mobilization of reservists.
A Hamas official earlier said that Israeli hostages could only be brought home 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,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Hamas has said Israel has violated the ceasefire with several deadly shootings as well as by holding up some aid deliveries and impeding the return of Gazans to the strip’s north.
Israel denies holding back aid and says it has fired on people who disregarded warnings not to approach Israeli troops.
So far, 16 of 33 hostages have been freed as part of the ceasefire deal’s first phase due to last 42 days. Five Thai hostages were also let go in an unscheduled release.
In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks and others detained during the war and held without charge.
An Israeli 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,” the hostages forum said.
There are 76 hostages still held in Gaza, more than 35 of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli media.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was among key ministers who met with Netanyahu on Tuesday, said that if all hostages were not released by Saturday, the war should resume.
If that happens, Gaza’s water, electricity and aid should be cut off and Palestinians there should be removed, he said.
“There will only be fire and brimstone from our planes, our artillery, our tanks, and our heroic fighters. There will be full occupation of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
TRUMP’S PLAN FOR GAZA
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 of dollars 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 pre-war population of 2.3 million has been internally displaced by the conflict.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities and about 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Trump said last week the U.S. should take over Gaza and move out more than 2 million Palestinian residents so the enclave can be developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. Netanyahu has praised the plan and said on Tuesday the security cabinet endorsed it.
Trump’s plan has enraged Palestinians and Arab leaders and upended decades of U.S. policy that endorsed a two-state solution in which Israel and a Palestinian state would coexist.
The forcible displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime banned by the 1949 Geneva conventions.
Trump restated his position as he met Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday at the White House amid widespread opposition to his plan among Washington’s Arab allies, including Jordan.
Palestinians fear a repeat of what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation. Israel denies they were forced out.
For Jordan, Trump’s talk of resettlement comes dangerously close to its nightmare of a mass expulsion of Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank, echoing an idea long promoted by ultra-nationalist Israelis of Jordan becoming an alternative Palestinian home.
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.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Michael Yaakov in Tel Aviv, Nuha Sharaf, Emily Rose, Steven Scheer and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Writing by Michael Georgy, Alexander Cornwell and Frances Kerry;Editing by Timothy Heritage, Angus MacSwan, Mark Heinrich and Cynthia Osterman)
