Meanwhile, Egyptian and Qatari mediators were working “intensively” to compel Israel to address Hamas’s new demands before Saturday’s scheduled release of three Israeli hostages, Egypt’s state-run al-Qahera television reported.
His defence minister, Israel Katz, echoed the deliberately ambiguous language on Wednesday, saying: “If Hamas does not release the Israeli hostages by Shabbat, the gates of hell will open on them, just as the US president promised.
Hamas’s spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, said on Wednesday that Israel was “evading implementation of several provisions of the ceasefire agreement” and reiterated the group’s stance that hostages could only be released through diplomatic means.
Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, said there were “positive signals” that the hostage handover would go ahead as planned, but added it had “yet to receive Israel’s commitment to implement the full terms of the deal, especially the humanitarian protocol”.
Israel denies the Hamas allegations, but claimed responsibility for an airstrike in the Rafah area on Wednesday that killed two people who the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said were flying a drone.
