Hamas said it will postpone the next hostage release scheduled for the weekend after accusing Israel of breaking the cease-fire deal on Monday.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, said the exchanges would remain on pause until Israel offers proper compensation for allegedly breaking the terms of the breakthrough truce deal that was meant to free 33 hostages in its first phase.
“Hostages who were scheduled to be released next Saturday… will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively,” Obeida wrote on X.
Hamas’ state Media Office accused Israel on Monday of refusing to allow shelter supplies into the Gaza Strip, as outlined in the cease-fire agreement to help combat the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
Aid has been flooding into Gaza since the cease-fire began last month, but Hamas officials and humanitarian groups say not enough has arrived to northern Gaza, where the most destruction lies and where the terror group remains most active.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz slammed Hamas’ notice as an “outright violation of the ceasefire,” the Times of Israel reports.
“I instructed the IDF to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza and to protect the [border] communities,” Katz said in preparation for a return to war.
