Israel and the United States are attempting to bring forward the release of six hostages from phase one of the Gaza hostage deal to as early as “in the coming days, even this week,” a diplomatic source told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday evening.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to hold security consultations on Saturday evening on the next steps in the ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
“Tomorrow, the prime minister will hold a discussion on the month of Ramadan, and the issue of the hostage deal will also be discussed there,” a source told the Post. “We are interested in releasing as many hostages as possible during phase A – and that is what we are concentrating on right now; this is the goal.”
In response to Hamas announcing on Monday that it would postpone the Saturday release of hostages scheduled due to Israeli violations of the deal, US President Donald Trump said that if Hamas did not return all the hostages by Saturday at 12 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. Israel time, he would “let all hell break loose.”
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that if all the hostages are not released by Saturday at 12 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. Israel time, the hostage ceasefire deal would stop, and there would be a resumption of war.
Saturday deal
On Saturday, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad released just three hostages, Iair Horn, Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov, and Sagui Dekel-Chen, in accordance with the hostage-ceasefire deal previously agreed to prior to Trump’s and Netanyahu’s declarations.
In response, Trump said that since Hamas failed to release all the hostages by noon, the US would back any decision Israel makes in response. There have been no responses from the prime minister to this statement.
“The combination of the reinforcement of IDF forces around the Gaza Strip and President Trump’s firm stance led to the release of three of our hostages today – despite Hamas’s earlier refusal to release them,” Netanyahu said Saturday evening.
“The Prime Minister also appreciates the President’s full support for Israel’s decisions regarding the Gaza Strip going forward,” he added.
This is a developing story.
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