Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has issued an extremely dire threat to Hamas. This warning comes during a period of rising hostilities in the wider conflict. Katz declared that Israel would maintain a "permanent" presence in certain parts of Gaza unless hostages held there are released. This announcement comes at the same time as a similar proposal from President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. He recommends that the existing ceasefire allow its expansion through the end of Passover and try to extend the ceasefire-hostage deal into early April.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has grown dire in the wake of the breakdown of a tenuous ceasefire on Tuesday. The ceasefire had allowed two months of marked calm and led to the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. The calm turned again when Israel started their bombardments on Gaza. In retaliation, Hamas launched rockets into Israel on Thursday, the first rocket attack since the ceasefire expired. Thankfully, no serious injuries or fatalities came as a result of this exchange.
The Israeli occupation military confirmed on Thursday that it launched a new ground operation into the southern Gaza city of Rafah. According to news reports, the city’s municipality laid claim to an awful toll on Friday. More than 100 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in the aerial bombardment. The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, described the incident as "one of the largest single-day child death tolls in the last year."
“one of the largest single-day child death toll in the last year” – UNICEF
Hamas continues to insist on sticking to a release schedule established months ago with Israel and the United States. This timeline details a step-by-step plan to advance toward a second phase of truce talks. The renewed hostilities have left these plans in question.
Last week, Witkoff introduced an innovative plan to free many of the hostages currently in Hamas’s custody. In exchange, he promised to prolong the ceasefire. As of now, 59 hostages are still in Gaza, and less than half are thought to be alive.
Katz stressed that Israel is “fully on board” with Witkoff’s conditional proposal to release all hostages, whether alive or deceased. He threatened that if Hamas persisted in its obstinacy, Israel would step up attacks from air, land and sea.
“The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more territory it will lose to Israel” – Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz
The international response has been divided. Egyptian mediators, who had hosted Israeli negotiators for ceasefire talks only days before the outbreak of renewed hostilities, declared themselves astonished by the breach. Tamim Khallaf, Mina’s spokesperson, called the illegal attacks “a serious and blatant violation." He pointed out that there were no clear signs that Egypt’s own military was about to breach.
“We have not been receiving these indications. We were engaged in ceasefire talks in order to move forward with phase two and phase three,” – Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Tamim Khallaf
In a statement, Hamas accused Israel of attempting to use the deal to its advantage. They argue that Israel is failing to live up to its obligations under the second phase.
“to blackmail Hamas by retrieving the (hostages) from the first phase of the agreement without committing to the obligations of the second phase, which include a lasting calm and full withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip” – Khaled Meshaal, senior Hamas official
The ever-evolving conflict and peace negotiations shed insight into the multifaceted disadvantages all affected parties deal with. The unfolding picture Because both sides are still playing a complicated game of diplomatic and military chess, the situation is still developing.
