Hamas says it’ll free hostages as planned; PM’s office implies gaps remain on deal
Terror group, Egyptian media claim ‘obstacles’ threatening to unravel Gaza agreement have been overcome, though Israel denies reports of mobile homes, heavy equipment entering Strip
Hamas on Thursday signaled that a crisis threatening to unravel the Gaza truce deal could be avoided, despite uncertainty over the number of hostages due to be released by the terror group on Saturday and conflicting reports over aid supplies entering the Strip.
Hamas said it was committed to implementing the deal, “including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timeline,” but did not specify how many hostages would go free on Saturday, when three are scheduled to be released. President Donald Trump has demanded that “all” hostages be released by noon on Saturday.
Egypt’s state-aligned Extra News reported that Cairo and Doha had successfully “overcome obstacles,” citing an official source as saying that Israel and Hamas were now committed to implementing the deal.
The terror group said that mediators had promised to resolve issues preventing the continued flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, though a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a Qatari report that mobile homes and heavy equipment were entering the Strip.
The Prime Minister’s Office called the Al Jazeera report, which claimed the mobile homes and earth-moving equipment would be allowed into the Strip on Thursday, “fake news.”
“There is no basis for it,” the statement said, with Netanyahu spokesman Omer Dostri following up a short while later with a clarification that “there is no entry of mobile homes or heavy equipment into Gaza, and there is no coordination for it.”
Egyptian security sources told Reuters they expected heavy construction equipment to enter on Thursday and if that happened then Hamas would release hostages on Saturday as scheduled.
The terror group’s statement came a day after a Hamas delegation, led by top official Khalil al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo for talks with mediators on the flailing hostage-ceasefire agreement sealed last month.
Hamas said it did not want the deal to collapse, though it rejected what it called the “language of threats and intimidation” from Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, who have said the ceasefire should end if the hostages are not released.
“Accordingly, Hamas reaffirms its commitment to implementing the agreement as signed, including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timeline,” the terror group said in a statement, adding that both Egyptian and Qatari mediators would press on with efforts “to remove obstacles and close gaps.”
The fragile ceasefire has been strained since Hamas announced on Monday that it wouldn’t release hostages on Saturday as planned, accusing Israel of preventing aid from reaching the Strip, which Israel denies. Trump then warned that “hell” would break loose if Hamas failed to release all the hostages being held in Gaza by Saturday.
Following those remarks, Netanyahu said Israel would resume “intense fighting” in Gaza if Hamas did not return hostages by Saturday noon. Israel then put out a series of conflicting statements saying Hamas must release “our hostages,” “nine hostages,” and “all of them” for the ceasefire to continue.
Touring Gaza on Thursday morning, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said forces were prepared for an escalation if the hostage deal with Hamas collapses.
In remarks provided by the Shin Bet, Bar said that alongside efforts to complete the hostage release deal with Hamas, “the forces on the ground are at a high level of readiness to deal with various scenarios, including preparations for an escalation in the area.”
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told public radio on Thursday that he did not believe Hamas would be able to get out of the agreement.
“There’s a deal, they won’t be able to give anything less than what is in the deal,” he said. “I don’t believe that Hamas can behave otherwise.”
Hamas says 73,000 tents delivered but no mobile homes
The terror group said on Thursday that the most recent talks in Cairo have focused on issues such as Israel’s allowing the entry of mobile homes, tents, medical and fuel supplies, and heavy machinery needed for the removal of rubble.
Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza, told Reuters only 73,000 of the required 200,000 tents had arrived in the enclave, while no mobile homes had been permitted so far.
COGAT, the Defense Ministry agency overseeing aid deliveries into Gaza, said 400,000 tents had so far been allowed in, while countries meant to supply mobile homes had not yet sent them.
International aid officials confirmed that aid was coming in despite considerable logistical problems, though they cautioned that far more was needed.
“We have seen improvement in some ways, but certainly, the response is nowhere near enough to meet the needs of so many people who face so much destruction and loss,” said Shaina Low, an official from the Norwegian Refugee Council based in the Jordanian capital Amman.
She said shelter materials were going in, despite Israeli restrictions on so-called “dual use” materials which can also be used for military purposes.
Under the ceasefire, Hamas has so far released 16 Israeli hostages from an initial group of 33 children, women, and older men agreed to be exchanged for almost 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners and detainees in the first stage of a multi-phase deal. Hamas also freed five Thai hostages in an unscheduled release in January.
Negotiations on a second phase of the agreement, which mediators had hoped would see the release of the remaining hostages as well as the full withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces troops from Gaza, were supposed to be already underway in Doha but an Israeli team returned home on Monday, two days after arriving.
The threat to cancel the 42-day initial ceasefire that formed the basis of the agreement has drawn thousands of Israeli protesters onto the streets this week, calling on the government to stick with the deal in order to bring the remaining hostages home.
Earlier on Thursday, Channel 12 news reported that Hamas was expected to release three hostages on Saturday, as per the truce schedule, if the hostage-ceasefire deal holds.
Israel had reportedly sent a message to Hamas through mediators Egypt and Qatar that the deal would continue if the terror group released three hostages, as scheduled, on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Hamas politburo official Husam Badran called for massive marches in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the weekend in opposition to Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza in order to rebuild the war-torn enclave.
Badran additionally called on Palestinians to mobilize amid escalating violence in the northern West Bank as Israeli troops continue a weeks-long counter-terror operation, urging them to “take part in the global movement” and unify “around the option of resistance.”
Trump’s plan to take over Gaza has alarmed the Arab world, particularly Jordan and Egypt, which the US president has singled out as primary candidates to host relocated Palestinians.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Seventy-three of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 21 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and Thai nationals — during the ceasefire that began in January. Another 17 hostages are slated for release in the first phase of the accord, of whom the terror group has said eight are dead.
Hamas also freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
