Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in Gaza and directed troops to prepare to resume fighting Hamas if the militant group does not go ahead with the next scheduled release of hostages on Saturday.
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 an agreed-upon number of tents and other aid into Gaza.
Amid the mounting tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages on Saturday.
After meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump predicted Hamas would not release all the remaining hostages as he had demanded.
“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” the president said of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”
Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas has released 21 hostages in a series of five exchanges for more than 730 Palestinian prisoners. A second phase calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce. However, Trump’s statements about both the pending releases and plans for post-war Gaza have destabilized its fragile architecture.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Netanyahu’s threat referred to the three hostages scheduled for release on Saturday or all the remaining hostages, which would be a departure from the terms of the ceasefire. Netanyahu's office said it “welcomed President Trump's demand."
As Trump spoke to reporters in Washington and reasserted his demands, an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting, said Israel was “sticking to Trump’s announcement regarding the release of the hostages. Namely, that they will all be released on Saturday.”
Netanyahu's office also said it ordered the military to mobilize troops on and around the Gaza Strip in preparation for scenarios that could arise.
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 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 must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties. This is the only way to bring back prisoners,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday. “The language of threats has no value; it only complicates matters.”
Trump is hosting King Abdullah II in Washington as he escalates pressure on Jordan to take in refugees from Gaza, perhaps permanently, as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East.
“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control of Gaza as the Jordanian king stood by.
Abdullah II was asked repeatedly by reporters about Trump’s plan to remake the Middle East, but didn’t make substantive comments. He also did not comment on the idea that a large number of refugees from Gaza could be welcomed in Jordan, where millions of Palestinian refugees already reside.
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 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, while Israel said it would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The sides have carried out five swaps since Jan. 19.
The war could resume in early March if no agreement is reached on the more complicated second phase of the ceasefire. But if it does, Israel 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.
Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in Washington and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel contributed reporting.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
34 Comments
kurisupisu
Israel has to live up to the agreement that was made.
Billot
May there be peace! Trump's plan is the best shot we've had in ages for peace in the region. Clearly Gaza, being the first trial period for a palestinian state, was a complete and utter failure.
The election and continued support of Hamas by the Gazan arabs indicates zero prospects for future peace. It's the continued support of Hamas by the Gazan arabs that is the true issue at the heart of all this.
Unfortunately, decades of raising children to hate will do this (look up Farfur the mouse - a palestinian children's show teaching children to martyr themselves).
Billot
So sorry I must have misread you kurisupisu! I'm sure you meant to say the agreement was just broken by Hamas.
Happy to correct though, no trouble at all.
May Hamas get what's coming their way very shortly.
Billot
The false equivalency at play is also beyond bizarre. Kidnapped civilians exchanged for terrorist prisoners who have murdered in cold blood, and at a more than a 50:1 ratio, at that!
The extent to which Israel values life is incredible that they would make a deal such as this. I can't think of any civilization in the history of humanity that would agree to a deal such as this.
And yet, despite this, Hamas STILL breaks the deal. Will wonders never cease??
Goodbye Hamas. You had a long run, but it wasn't short enough!
bass4funk
Hamas doesn’t realize they’re not dealing with the Biden administration anymore, if anything their actions prove once again why at the current level there will never be a two state solution.
Billot
They definitely didn't get the memo, I agree
They're about to find out the HARD WAY
Sadly, the two state solution died ages ago, particularly after Clinton noted that Arafat had zero interest despite being offered 95% of the west bank.
Palestinians want ONE THING (stated over and over):
ALL OF ISRAEL, with ALL JEWS DEAD.
Fortunately, Israel and the mighty IDF ain't gonna let that happen!
Fos
The article and the general news worldwide are about the Israelis breaking the ceasefire rules, same as what happened numerous times already.
Lets also remind to the readers that Israel IDF and the extreme right wing government in Tel Aviv are responsible for the death of over 65.000 people in Gaza and Lebanon, 70% are innocent children and women NOT affiliated to Hamas, UN says. A “blight on the conscience of humanity.”
Fos
Lets also remind the readers here, with reference to the so called "two states solution" that according to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, in 2024 settlers established 59 new outposts, without authorisation from the Israeli government. That was more than double the number from the previous year – which was also a record year for settlement outpost establishment.
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law,
Billot
Lol where are you getting your numbers from Fos?
EVEN HAMAS says only 45,000 lol
The FACT is that ALL numbers are simply MADE UP by Hamas
This has been demonstrated statistically
More than HALF of the numbers are HAMAS terrorists
A figure completely unprecendented in THE HISTORY OF URBAN COMBAT
All thanks to the remarkable precision of the IDF, who fight in a warzone created by Hamas, who EMBEDS themselves in the civilian population.
(oh the UN is a complete absurdity which only the extreme left wing or the insane take seriously, lol. sad to see you taken in by their appeal)
WoodyLee
"“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control of Gaza as the Jordanian king stood by""
And there you have it Folks, Trump the peace maker spoke!! give me Gaza like it or not.
What Trump does not understand is that Gaza has been to Hell several times before and what ever he and Bibi are planning will not change anything.
Gaza has been and will be the burial ground for all invaders.
Capuchin
Trump stated "The civillization's been wiped out in Gaza" during the press conference with King Abdullah. Trump's Middle East advisor Netanyahu might want to remind him that he's wanted for war crimes and is currently under investigation by the ICJ for genocide. Trumps admissions might get him into trouble.
Fos
Have you ever heard of The Lancet? It is neither a Palestinian source or Iranian, and their authoritative study says the death toll is higher than official number
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/gaza-death-toll-40-higher-than-official-number-lancet-study-finds
Israel has a right to self-defense, but this right cannot be indiscriminate vengeance. And there cannot be collective responsibility of the Palestinian people for the actions of a terrorist minority from Hamas.
Lets also remember that the Netanyahu's regime in Israel has warded off completely the Gaza Strip since the start of the military operations, same as the battleground in South Lebanon. Therefore all the actions and destructions by Israel IDF cannot be documented by foreign media. Only the media embedded with Israel army. So you can have an idea of the authenticity of the chronicles, especially the narrative of American media.
WoodyLee
May be Mr. Trump should read this first before he embarks on Gaza.
""The known history of Gaza spans 4,000 years. Gaza was ruled, destroyed and repopulated by various dynasties, empires, and peoples.[1]
Originally a Canaanite settlement, it came under the control of the ancient Egyptians for roughly 350 years before being conquered and becoming one of the Philistines' principal cities. Gaza became part of the Assyrian Empire around 730 BC. Alexander the Great besieged and captured the city in 332 BC. Most of the inhabitants were killed during the assault, and the city, which became a center for Hellenistic learning and philosophy, was resettled by nearby Bedouins. The area changed hands regularly between two Greek successor-kingdoms, the Seleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt, until it was besieged and taken by the Hasmoneans in 96 BC.""
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gaza
WoodyLee
I think Hamas should just step aside and let Trump and Bibi just do whatever they have in mind, eventually it will all be there's, LOL
John
It's not worth negotiating/ conversing with the zionist zombie killing machine and its supporters. They've lost their minds.
Billot
Fos, the Lancet is a medical journal lol, you do realize that yes?
Besides which, the critical point is that no urban combat conflict IN HISTORY has had such a LOW civilian:fighter mortality ratio than the conflict in Gaza.
IT IS UNPRECEDENTED. All thanks to the accuracy and morality of the IDF.
Stop quoting medical journals (which themselves extrapolate their internal figures from Gazan health ministry data: this ministry is literally part of Hamas, lol)
If the IDF really wanted to cause damage, this ratio would be NOWHERE CLOSE to what it is. Could you imagine what the JSDF would do if China massacred 1200 Japanese civilians and gangraped hundreds of women at an EDM party and burned families alive? (oh wait we already know what would be done based on the historical precedent set between those two countries)
GuruMick
Thats Netanyahu..."the indicted war criminal "
Ricky Kaminski13
Take em down T man, and pay zero notice of the Hamas savage apologists, supporters and enablers. They are a lost cause. Deadlines, straight talk, action. Do the world a big favor.
Zaphod
That should be a matter of course. Who in the world advocates for Hamas to keep the people they kidnapped indefinitely and declare victory?
Hamas must release the remaining living hostages and come clean about the ones they murdered, period.
The bias in the article is mind-boggling.
wallace
Tens of thousands of Palestinians remained buried under the bombed-out rubble. People are starting to dig for them.
wallace
Both Netanyahu and his wife are charged with corruption. Netanyahu's wife Sara admits to misusing public funds.
GuruMick
Tik Tok is where demented IDF "soldiers " wear womens under garments.
The rape explanation is from Israeli media.
Never been to Qatar...no money coming to me .
What I have done is extensive reading of many sources, including Israeli investigators and media as well as people actually in Gaza during this holocaust against Gazans, people like Doctors from the UK, the USA ect.
What motivation would they , and others listed above, have to lie ?
"Hasbara " might mean "explain " but in reality its an excuse to lie.
Aly Rustom
well said!
iknowall
Oh, in that case since the IDF got their butts kicked, there should be no complaints about the alleged 47,000 Palestinian Arabs who might have subsequently lost their lives somehow--not by the IDF of course, because they got their butts kicked.
Sanjinosebleed
So the baby killers and war criminals in the IDF break the ceasefire then blame Hamas so they can start murdering civilians again.
Trump has admitted that war crimes have been committed by his statements that no one can live there anymore as it is all rubble! That is collective punishment and a war crime!
Lucky trump got 100million from adelsons wife to sell out the Palestinians I suppose a least we know he can be bought!
Peter14
It sounds more and more like Hitler. He had a "final solution" for the Jews and it would appear that Trump has his own "final solution" in mind for all the Gaza citizens who do not want to leave or sell their land to anyone.
Alarm bells ringing yet? They should be, because Trump is a revolting monster.
GuruMick
I will just say...no beheaded babies...thats a lie...no evidence of mass rapes as a weapon of war...another lie.
Why would Israeli sources claim things that are not true ?
To dehumanise Arab people generally and the Gaza resistance specifically.
Aly Rustom
pretty much
GuruMick
Lets see how long Trumps plan lasts when exposed to air
GuruMick
Ricky "do the world a big favour "?
If the one world body , United Nations, continually rules against Israeli crimes, what "big favour " should we expect ?
Compliance with International Law ?
No...this is Israel...a "special case ".....law doesn't apply because...I don't actually know why the "Jewish Nation " gets a free pass on everything.
itsonlyrocknroll
If this ceasefire fails, Israeli IDF, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump could well, politically diplomatically use an unrestrained unprecedented overwhelming decisive milltary force that will deliver a total routing of Hamas.
The question is will such a action be restricted to Gaza?
I doubt it, Benjamin Netanyahu could well seize the opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah. severely reduce the government of Iran ability to wage war or gain the future use of a means to harm Israel.
bass4funk
Unless the other Arab nations are willing to do their part, it should last as long as the bulldozers start rolling in, again, either they accept Trump‘s idea and proposal, or they can all go back to the same daily, usual, bombing and retaliation and poverty and people dying, they do have a choice, it may not be the one that they like, but those are the only two options at the moment, Europe is not going toget anything, so they can’t depend on them, so it’s Trump or back to Hamas, choose wisely.
itsonlyrocknroll
When Hamas 7th October infamy, atrocity, the blinkered Islamic fundamentalist extremism sealed the conclusion/end of any future for a two state solution.
Also paved the way for a end to Hezbollah.
The despot regime of Iran will be facing imminent harsh reprisals.