Israel PM issues threat to Hamas over hostages as Gaza talks at an impasse

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (not pictured) speak to the media following talks at the Chancellery on March 16, 2023 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images Europe (Sean Gallup/Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty )

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Hamas on Monday with unimaginable consequences if it did not return hostages held in Gaza, while the Palestinian group accused his government of sabotaging the fragile truce there.

The first phase of the ceasefire ended over the weekend, but talks on its future have hit an impasse after six weeks of relative calm in the Gaza Strip that included exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and an influx of badly needed aid.

The dispute came as Arab leaders prepared for a summit in Cairo on Tuesday to hash out a plan for Gaza’s reconstruction to counter a widely condemned proposal from US President Donald Trump that would involve the displacement of its Palestinian population.

While Israel announced early on Sunday it backed an extension of the first phase of the truce until mid-April, Hamas has insisted on a transition to the second phase, which should lead to a permanent end to the war.

Netanyahu, speaking Monday in the Israeli parliament, warned Hamas “there will be consequences that you cannot imagine” if the dozens of hostages still held by militants were not released.

Defence Minister Israel Katz later struck a similar tone, saying if the group did not free the hostages, “the gates of Gaza will be locked, and the gates of hell will open”.

As the truce’s first phase came to a close, Netanyahu’s office had announced Israel was halting “all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip” and that Hamas would face “other consequences” if it did not accept the truce extension.

Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the government was considering a scheme that included measures such as displacing Gazans from the territory’s north and halting the electricity supply.

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, accused Israel of actively sabotaging the ceasefire, calling its push for an extension “a blatant attempt to... avoid entering into negotiations for the second phase”.

Israel “was interested in the collapse of the agreement and worked hard to achieve that”, Hamdan said in a video statement.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the terms of the truce, which has largely held since it began on January 19.

The move to block aid drew criticism from key truce mediators Egypt and Qatar, with both calling it a violation of the ceasefire deal.

Other governments in the region as well as the United Nations and some of Israel’s Western allies have spoken against the Israeli decision.

Germany’s foreign ministry said that denying humanitarian access “is not a legitimate means of pressure in negotiations”, while Britain said aid “must not be blocked”.

Stabbing

The war has destroyed or damaged most buildings in Gaza, displaced almost the entire population and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN.

The fighting was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

That attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, while Israel’s military retaliation in Gaza has killed nearly 48,400 people, also mostly civilians, data from both sides show.

Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 58 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.

In the first fatal attack in Israel since the truce began in January, authorities said a stabbing spree Monday in the northern city of Haifa killed one person, wounded four others and ended with the assailant -- a member of Israel’s Arabic-speaking Druze community -- dead.

The stabbings took place at a bus and train station in the port city, home to a mixed Jewish and Arab population.

Police identified the assailant as a member of the Druze minority, generally considered supportive of the Israeli state, and did not specify a motive.

In Gaza, the Israeli military said it had struck a “suspicious motorised vessel” off the coast of Khan Yunis in the south, and in a separate incident, opened fire on two suspects who had approached troops.

Reconstruction plan

In Cairo, Arab foreign ministers gathered ahead of a leaders' summit that is expected to discuss an alternative Gaza reconstruction plan to the one floated by Trump.

The Arab ministers held a “preparatory and consultative” session centred on a plan to rebuild the territory without displacing Palestinians, a source at the Arab League told AFP on condition of anonymity.

In his remarks on Monday, Netanyahu hailed Trump’s “visionary and innovative” plan to forcibly remove Gazans, saying it was “time to give them the freedom to leave”.

The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli-led blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007.

Netanyahu has faced pressure from critics in Israel who have regularly blamed him for delays throughout the months of truce negotiations.

Dani Elgarat, speaking Monday at the funeral of his brother Itzik whose remains were returned from Gaza, said the Israeli government had “abandoned” him.

The state “did not fulfil its duty... while your life was in danger”, said Elgarat.

“The enemy who caused your death was unfortunately not the one who kidnapped you, but the one who abandoned you.”