The fragility of the truce between Israel and Hamas was laid bare on Saturday, after Israel accused Hamas of withholding a hostage, prompting a halt in the movement of Gazan civilians back to their homes in the north. <\/p>\n
The ceasefire deal was already a brittle agreement, with Israeli statements often calling it a \u201cframework\u201d as opposed to a deal. <\/p>\n
Tensions escalated this week when 29-year-old Arbel Yehud, a civilian who Israel says should have been freed Saturday, was not among the four women released. Israel, in turn, did not allow Gazan civilians to return north past the Netzarim Corridor, which was meant to take place Saturday under the ceasefire and hostage deal. <\/p>\n
Both Hamas and Israel have accused the other of failing to stick to their end of the bargain, raising questions about how well the ceasefire that took more than 15 months to reach would hold. <\/p>\n
Baskin explained that Hamas \u201cwill not give anything for free,\u201d in reference to Yehud\u2019s captivity. He added that \u201cIsrael\u2019s threat not to allow the displaced to move north\u201d does little to convince Hamas to help push for her release. <\/p>\n
The former negotiator warned that \u201ccarrying out the threat\u201d of not allowing displaced Palestinians to move north \u201ccould lead to a halt in the release of the hostages\u201d and advised Israel to try to keep the deal alive. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is better for Israel to talk less and let the mediators do more,\u201d Baskin added, urging Israel to \u201cconvey to Qatar and Egypt that it is ready to adopt the three-week deal that Hamas agreed to in September. <\/p>\n
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Saturday that \u201cHamas didn\u2019t fulfil the agreement in terms of its obligation to return civilians first,\u201d adding that \u201cwe will insist that Arbel Yehud return\u201d along with the rest of the hostages. <\/p>\n
Hamas said that Israel \u201ccontinues to procrastinate in implementing the terms of the ceasefire agreement and the prisoner exchange by maintaining the closure of al-Rasheed Street and preventing the return of displaced persons walking from the south to the north.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Palestinian militant group added that it holds Israel \u201cresponsible for any delays in the implementation of the agreement and the repercussions that may arise on the remaining phases.\u201d <\/p>\n
There are questions as to how the United States under President Donald Trump would respond to the violations alleged by both sides. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is now, after clear violations by the Israelis, how will the US respond? Will they use pressure to ensure adherence, or are we seeing the breakdown of this pause in hostilities so soon after the signing?\u201d Hellyer said. <\/p>\n
Tensions simmered as the second exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners took place. The militant group used it to choreograph a poignant show of force despite Israel\u2019s warnings. <\/p>\n
In the nearly three-minute video, the four women are seen seated inside a van, smiling and posing. The women were seen thanking Hamas\u2019 military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, \u201cfor the good treatment,\u201d including for providing food and water. They also thanked them for \u201cprotecting\u201d them from shelling. <\/p>\n
None of the four women are native Arabic speakers. In the video, they can be heard speaking in Hebrew accents. <\/p>\n
Hamas\u2019 propaganda videos have left a sour note over the years. Previous Hamas\u2019 videos of the four soldiers\u2019 kidnapping by Hamas on October 7, 2023 had gone viral. The women were dressed in civilian clothes at the time of their taking, including pajamas when they were pulled from their bedrooms. Videos showed them covered in blood. <\/p>\n
Experts say that deals like this are bound to be filled with complications, especially as Hamas tries to use what leverage it has over Israel, and as Israel tries to retrieve hostages while destroying the group. <\/p>\n
Yohanan Tzoreff, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, said concerns about violations, delays, or crises come with \u201cany deal with an organization like Hamas.\u201d <\/p>\n
Such concerns \u201care rooted in the many past grievances between the two sides, numerous bloody conflicts, and, of course, the heinous attack carried out by Hamas on October 7,\u201d Tzoreff said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue of hostage release became a test for both sides,\u201d he said, adding that Israel \u201cfinds itself facing a dilemma: how to secure the hostages\u2019 release while fully achieving the second goal of dismantling Hamas.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The fragility of the truce between Israel and Hamas was laid bare on Saturday, after Israel accused Hamas of withholding a hostage, prompting a halt in the movement of Gazan civilians back to their homes in the north. The ceasefire deal was already a brittle agreement, with Israeli statements often calling it a \u201cframework\u201d as <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}