Confrontation Over Threat to Ceasefire

There have been significant developments since Hamas threatened on Monday to delay the release of the next group of three Israeli hostages. Donald Trump was the first to weigh-in on the confrontation, declaring that Hamas should release all of the Israeli hostages by 12 noon on Saturday – a significant increase on the agreed release of 33 hostages.

Donald Trump’s statement was followed on Tuesday evening by one from Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he had the Israeli Cabinet’s unanimous approval to restart the fighting if Hamas failed to release the hostages by Saturday – not clarifying how many hostages they had in mind.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained on Tuesday that allowing Hamas to use the ceasefire to rearm is unacceptable to Israel, thus appearing to support a return to fighting the terrorists.

According to All Israel News, the Israel Defence Forces have discovered attempts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip using drones in recent days – a clear breach of the ceasefire agreement. They intercepted several attempts to smuggle weapons, drugs and cigarettes, which involved Israeli Bedouins from the Negev desert.

All of this has prompted Egypt and Qatar, the local mediators of the ceasefire, to intensify their efforts to rescue it, as it looks extremely fragile with Netanyahu apparently calling Hamas’ bluff.

US Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, has also returned to the negotiations, having been credited with persuading Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire deal in the first place, and recently mediating the release of an American from Russian custody.

These diplomatic moves have coincided with a Hamas delegation arriving in Cairo for meetings with senior Egyptian officials.