JERUSALEM: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel would resume "intense fighting" in Gaza if Hamas did not return hostages by Saturday noon, without specifying whether he was referring to all captives.
"If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israeli military) will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated," Netanyahu said in a statement issued after a meeting with his security cabinet.
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also called on the prime minister to "open the gates of hell" on Hamas if the Palestinian militant group failed to release all hostages by Saturday.
In a statement, Smotrich urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "inform Hamas unequivocally: Either all the hostages are released by Saturday -- no more phases, no more games -- or we open the gates of hell on them."
Hamas said Monday — and reiterated Tuesday — that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire, including by not allowing enough tents and other aid into Gaza.
Earlier Tuesday, an Israeli official said Netanyahu ordered the army to add more troops in and around the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu also ordered officials “to prepare for every scenario if Hamas doesn’t release our hostages this Saturday,” according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
So far, Hamas has released 21 hostages in a series of exchanges for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
President Donald Trump has said Israel should cancel the entire ceasefire if all of the roughly 70 hostages aren’t freed by Saturday. Hamas brushed off his threat on Tuesday, doubling down on its claim that Israel has violated the ceasefire and warned that it would only continue releasing hostages if all parties adhered to the ceasefire.
Trump is hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday as he escalates pressure on the Arab nation to take in refugees from Gaza — perhaps permanently — as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East.
Palestinians and the international community have seethed over Trump's recent comments that any Palestinians potentially expelled from Gaza would not have a right to return.
During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas committed to freeing 33 hostages captured in its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, while Israel said it would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The sides have carried out five swaps since January 19.
The war could resume in early March if no agreement is reached on the more complicated second phase of the ceasefire, which calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce.
But if Israel resumes the war, it will face a drastically different battlefield.
After forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza in the early stages of the war, Israel allowed many of those displaced people to return to what is left of their homes, posing a new challenge to its ability to move ground troops through the territory.
