Hamas Halts Hostage Release, Citing Deadly Israeli Cease-Fire Violations

Hamas on Monday announced the suspension of its next planned release of hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, accusing that country of violating the fragile cease-fire agreement it signed last month.

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades—Hamas' armed wing— said in a statement that hostages will "remain in place until the occupying entity complies with past obligations and compensates retroactively."

"Over the past three weeks, the resistance leadership monitored the enemy's violations and their noncompliance with the terms of the agreement," Obeida explained. "These violations include delaying the return of displaced persons to northern Gaza, targeting them with shelling and gunfire in various areas of the Gaza Strip, and failing to allow the entry of relief materials in all forms as agreed upon. Meanwhile, the resistance has fulfilled all its obligations."

Since the cease-fire took effect on January 19, Israeli forces have bombed and shot civilians in Gaza, killing at least 110 Palestinians, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. Palestinian civilians killed over the past few weeks reportedly include multiple children—one of them a 5-year-old girl—and an elderly woman.

"Israel continues to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip by denying Palestinians the basic necessities for survival and imposing conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction," the group alleged on Friday.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor continued:

Since the cease-fire, only a handful of injured and ill Palestinians from Gaza have been permitted to travel abroad for treatment, leaving thousands at risk of death due to Israel's ongoing denial of their right to receive treatment. In addition to ensuring a severe shortage of specialized medical personnel, generators, fuel, and oxygen stations, Israel has obstructed the rehabilitation of destroyed hospitals and blocked the entry of medical supplies, medications, and equipment.

Further, in addition to blocking equipment needed for maintenance and restoration, the ongoing and illegal restrictions by Israel are preventing the entry of temporary shelters, tents, and basic supplies for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whose homes it has destroyed...

Israel is deliberately obstructing the restoration of essential infrastructure, including water and sewage systems, endangering civilian lives and worsening environmental and health crises.

This, after over 15 months of Israeli bombardment and invasion of Gaza left more than 170,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza and around 2 million others forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and international humanitarian agencies.

U.S. President Donald Trump—whose proposal for an American takeover and redevelopment of the Gaza Strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East" has sparked international condemnation—said Monday that the cease-fire should end, letting "all hell break loose," if all the remaining 40 or so Israeli and international hostages are not released by noon on Saturday.

The Qassam Brigades on Monday reaffirmed Hamas' "commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them."