Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday called an announcement by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that it would postpone the release of hostages a "complete violation" of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
"Hamas' announcement to stop releasing Israeli hostages is a complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages. I have instructed the Israeli military to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza," Katz said in a statement.
Hamas announced later in the day that the hostage-prisoner exchange may still take place as scheduled under the truce deal with Israel, after the group's armed wing had announced an indefinite postponement.
The Palestinian militant group said that "Hamas has intentionally made this announcement five days before the scheduled prisoner handover, allowing mediators ample time to pressure the (Israeli) occupation towards fulfilling its obligations. The door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies."
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, the first phase of which came into effect on January 19, 33 Israeli hostages were to be released in exchange for around 1,900 prisoners, most of them Palestinian, being held in Israeli jails.
On Saturday they completed their fifth hostage-prisoner exchange, with three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners released.
With their return, 73 out of 251 hostages taken during the attack now remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The statement said Hamas had "closely monitored the enemy's violations and failure to abide by the terms of the agreement over the past three weeks".
"These include delaying the return of displaced people to northern Gaza, targeting them with shelling and gunfire across various areas of the (Gaza) Strip, and failing to allow the entry of humanitarian aid in all its forms as agreed upon," it added, asserting Hamas had "fulfilled all its obligations".
With AFP
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