Hamas said on Thursday that it plans to release three Israeli hostages on Saturday as agreed under the ceasefire deal, and Israel appears to have backed down on its demands for more captives to be freed.
The Times of Israel reported that Israel is preparing to receive three hostages on Saturday despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backing President Trump’s threat that the genocidal war would be restarted if all hostages weren’t released.
Earlier this week, Hamas said it was postponing the hostage release, citing Israeli ceasefire violations, complaints that Israeli officials acknowledged were legitimate.
Hamas’s main gripe appeared to be over Israel, blocking tents, mobile homes, and construction equipment from entering Gaza. According to Middle East Eye, dozens of bulldozers and caravans entered the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing and are expected to be allowed into Gaza.
Egyptian officials told Reuters that Israel would let heavy construction vehicles enter Gaza in exchange for the hostage release happening as scheduled, but Israeli officials denied the report. A spokesman for Netanyahu said that “there is no entry of mobile homes or heavy equipment into Gaza, and there is no coordination for it.”
The Netanyahu spokesman also acknowledged that Israel still hasn’t begun negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire deal. The lack of talks on the second phase is another violation of the agreement, as they were supposed to start on the 16th day of the ceasefire, which began on January 19.
The ceasefire in Gaza is still extremely fragile, as Israel bombed Gaza on Thursday after claiming a rocket was fired inside the strip. But a source from Gaza’s police force said the rocket was an unexploded Israeli ordnance that detonated while being moved, according to The Times of Israel.
Palestinian media reported that a 14-year-old boy was killed by the detonated ordnance. Israel claimed it struck the source of the rocket launch in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, a 15-year-old was killed by an Israeli airstrike to the east of the Nuseirat refugee camp, which is also in central Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed at least 92 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19.
