“The gates of hell will open on them, just as the U.S. president promised,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday. The anger in Israel was fueled in part by the images of three hostages looking pale and gaunt when they were released Feb. 8.
Hamas announced this week that it would delay the handover of three more hostages — an exchange that was scheduled for Saturday — until Israel adheres to the commitments it made in the ceasefire agreement. The militant group has accused Israel of blocking items it says are vital to Gaza’s recovery, including fuel, tents, medical supplies and heavy machinery to remove debris.
In a statement Wednesday, Hamas said it sent a high-level delegation to Cairo to continue talks on the implementation of the agreement, despite the tensions. “There is progress,” said one Hamas official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations. Egypt, Qatar and the United States jointly mediated the ceasefire deal.
But in Gaza, where the majority of people have been displaced and critical infrastructure destroyed, the rising tide of threats to restart the war has left the population exhausted and almost resigned to a resumption of the conflict. In interviews conducted by phone, residents said that they feared being separated from their families again, that they would run out of food unless they stockpiled it and that any small recoveries that were made would soon unravel.
In Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Ghadeer Ayoub, 33, said people in the territory’s decimated north have begun pitching tents in the rubble where streets and boulevards once were, “fearing that fighting will return and they will be stuck.”
Israeli military operations have devastated Gaza. Israel launched the campaign after a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people. About 250 others were dragged back to Gaza as hostages.
More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. More than 60 percent of the buildings in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations.
“No one feels like the war has ended. We are living in expectation it could be resumed any moment now,” said Mohamed Abulkas, 32.
In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the three-week ceasefire has had a “tangible impact” on people’s lives. “Any reversal risks plunging people back into the misery and despair that defined the last 16 months,” it said.
Netanyahu said Tuesday that Hamas’s claim that it would not release the three hostages as planned had prompted him to instruct the army to “amass forces inside and around the Gaza Strip.” It was unclear Wednesday to what extent that had taken place.
The prime minister, who heads the most far-right government in the country’s history, is under pressure from hard-liners within his political coalition and frequently maneuvers to keep his options open, as Israel’s right-wing advocates for deepening the war and international allies push him to end it.
While a large segment of the Israeli population supported the conflict in its early stages, especially its stated goal of bringing the hostages home, family members of those who were abducted have since joined protesters in the streets accusing Netanyahu of blocking a deal to end the war.
On Wednesday, family members of Yosef Chaim Ohana and Matan Angrest, who are among those held in Gaza, said that they received signs of life from their loved ones, and called on the Israeli government to sign onto a second phase of the ceasefire.
“We are extremely distressed because of the government’s conduct, the decision-makers in the security cabinet, by the things we hear,” Anat Angrest, whose son Matan, is believed to be held in harsh conditions because of his status as a soldier, said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12. “It’s not even enough to remain silent and say that we support an existing deal, but to shout — accelerate the process, sign the second stage. We need to save lives,” she said.
In Gaza, anxieties over the prospect of renewed fighting were compounded by the threat of Trump’s proposal to “take over” the territory and forcibly displace Palestinians for what he described as a real estate development. Anger in the region over Trump’s repeated remarks that the United States would “own” Gaza continued to build Wednesday, with the secretary general of the Arab League vowing that Arab leaders would not capitulate to the proposal.
“The Arab world needs to come up with a counterproposal,” Ahmed Aboul Gheit said during remarks at a conference in Dubai. He said the plan should outline “gradual” rehabilitation for Gaza “that does not require transferring the people out.” Egypt said Tuesday it was preparing to release a plan of its own.
The Trump plan for Gaza aims to “empty Palestine of its historical inhabitants,” Aboul Gheit said, something the Arab world has long opposed. “After resisting this for 100 years, we Arabs are not about to capitulate in any way now,” he added.
Trump has insisted that Egypt and Jordan take in more Palestinians from Gaza and suggested he could withhold U.S. aid to both countries if they do not comply, threatening to upend some of Washington’s longest-standing alliances in the Middle East.
For their part, Egypt and Jordan have approached the proposal cautiously but presented a united front. In a statement Wednesday, Egypt said that President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi had spoken to Jordan’s King Abdullah II and that they had both “stressed the importance of starting the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip immediately without displacing the Palestinian people from their land.”
In Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump is “wholeheartedly committed to see peace in the Middle East.”
“Our Arab partners in the region have been tasked with coming up with a peace plan to present to the president. That is ongoing,” she said.
The White House also released a readout of Trump’s private meeting with Abdullah the day before, saying the president “asked for the King’s assistance in ensuring that Hamas, as well as the leaders of the region, understand the severity of the situation.”
Mahfouz reported from Cairo, Salim from Baghdad, Loveluck from London and Cheeseman from Beirut. Hazem Balousha in Toronto, Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv and Dan Diamond in Washington contributed to this report.
