Israel says Hamas must commit to free more hostages for ceasefire to be extended
Foreign Minister Sa’ar tells media Israel ready to move on to second stage of complex truce, but terror group must give up more captives; defends halting humanitarian aid
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Tuesday that Israel was ready to proceed to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, as long as Hamas was ready to release more of the 59 hostages it is still holding.
Speaking to international press in Jerusalem, the foreign minister also said the Hamas terror group’s main source of funding is now humanitarian aid flowing into the Strip, defending Israel’s decision to halt the delivery of goods into the enclave.
“We are ready to continue to phase two, we will come with our positions which are probably different from the positions of Hamas,” Sa’ar said. “But in order to extend the time of the framework, we need an agreement to release more hostages. ‘No free meals’ is a very known principle.”
The three-stage ceasefire agreement, reached last month, halted some 15 months of fighting triggered by the group’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, when Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The US, Egyptian and Qatari-mediated deal requires Hamas to release all its hostages, Israel to release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners — including hundreds serving life sentences — and a halt to fighting in the Strip, followed by negotiations for a “sustainable calm” and IDF withdrawal from the enclave.
Dozens of hostages — alive and dead — were released in batches during the first phase, but the initial 42-day stage has expired and Hamas and Israel remain far apart on broader issues including the postwar governance of Gaza and the future of Hamas itself.
All remaining living hostages were due to be freed in a second phase of the ceasefire, but Hamas and Israel are deadlocked over how to extend the truce.
Israel announced on Sunday that it would halt the entry of aid into Gaza after negotiations over next steps in the fragile January 19 ceasefire hit an impasse.
Hamas says it wants to move ahead to the second phase negotiations that could open the way to a permanent end to the war with the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the devastated Palestinian enclave and a return of the remaining living hostages.
But Israel says hostages must be handed over for the truce to be extended, and backs a plan to extend the first stage of the ceasefire during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began on Saturday, until after the Jewish Passover holiday in April.
US President Donald Trump’s special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is due to visit the region in the next few days to discuss extending the ceasefire or moving ahead of phase two, the State Department said on Monday.
Sa’ar denied that Israel had breached the agreement by not moving ahead to stage two negotiations. He said there was “no automaticity” between the stages and he said Hamas had itself violated the agreement to allow aid into Gaza by seizing most of the supplies itself.
“Humanitarian aid became the number one source of income of Hamas in Gaza,” Sa’ar said. “With that money they use for terror to restore their abilities and to get more young terrorists into their organization.”
Aid groups have said that looting and wrongful seizure of aid trucks into Gaza has been a major problem.
Sa’ar said Israel had allowed the aid into Gaza as a part of its responsibilities under the first phase of the ceasefire “as long as there was a commitment…to free our hostages.”
After the first phase ended on Saturday, “we don’t have any commitment now to finance terror against ourselves,” he said.
Sa’ar declined to comment on an Israeli media report that Israel had set a 10-day deadline to reach an agreement or resume fighting, but said: “If we want to do it, we will do it.”
During the 42 days of the first phase, 33 hostages were returned to Israel in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
His remarks came as Arab leaders convened in Cairo, to discuss their own plan for post-war Gaza, in an effort to provide an alternative to US President Donald Trump’s insistence that the Strip’s entire population be moved, and that the US take over the enclave.
