Hamas Names Hostages to Be Freed after Accusing Israel of Breaching Ceasefire

 Cars and pedestrians move along a road amid widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military's ground and air offensive against Hamas in Gaza City's Jabaliya refugee camp, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP)
Cars and pedestrians move along a road amid widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military's ground and air offensive against Hamas in Gaza City's Jabaliya refugee camp, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP)
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Hamas Names Hostages to Be Freed after Accusing Israel of Breaching Ceasefire

 Cars and pedestrians move along a road amid widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military's ground and air offensive against Hamas in Gaza City's Jabaliya refugee camp, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP)
Cars and pedestrians move along a road amid widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military's ground and air offensive against Hamas in Gaza City's Jabaliya refugee camp, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP)

Hamas on Friday announced the names of three Israeli hostages to be released on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners after a delay that underlined the obstacles hanging over a fragile deal meant to end the war in Gaza.

Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, both taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri during the cross-border Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023, and Or Levy, abducted that day from the Nova music festival, will be handed over on Saturday, Hamas said.

The Hamas prisoners' media office said Israel was expected to free 183 Palestinians in exchange, including 18 who have been serving life sentences, 54 serving long sentences and 111 who were detained in the Gaza Strip during the war.

Earlier the Palestinian group accused Israel of breaching their ceasefire accord and held off announcing the names of the three Israelis until a 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) deadline had passed. It was not immediately clear whether the delay would affect the scheduled exchange on Saturday.

Hamas accused Israel of delaying the entry of hundreds of trucks carrying food and other humanitarian supplies agreed under the truce deal that took effect on January 19, and holding back all but a fraction of the tents and mobile homes needed to provide shelter to people returning to their bombed-out homes.

"This demonstrates clear manipulation of relief and shelter priorities," Hamas said in a statement.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that is overseeing the aid deliveries into Gaza, denied the accusation and warned that Israel would "not tolerate violations by Hamas".

The spat compounds the uncertainty around the ceasefire that had already mounted following US President Donald Trump's surprise announcement this week that he expected Gaza to be taken over by the United States.

Trump said on Tuesday he wanted to move the population of Gaza to a third country like Egypt or Jordan and place the small coastal enclave under US control to be developed into the "Riviera of the Middle East".

The statement underlined the fragility of the deal reached last month with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed Trump's vision for Gaza as a "remarkable" plan, but it was immediately rejected by Arab countries, Palestinian groups including Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and many Gazans, who said they would rebuild their homes and restaurants themselves.

However Israeli leaders have repeated the line that Gazans who wish should be able to leave and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow for the departure of Gaza residents who wanted to go.

So far, 13 Israeli hostages of the 33 children, women and older men set to be released in the first, 42-day phase of the agreement have come home, and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been released in exchange. Five Thai hostages have also been returned.

Work on the second stage of the multi-phase agreement, aimed at securing the release of around 60 male hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, has begun and an Israeli negotiating team was expected to fly on Saturday to Doha, Israeli media reported on Friday.

However, the accusations levelled by Hamas against Israel underscored how little trust there was between the two sides following more than 15 months of the bloodiest episode in the decades-long conflict.

The Israeli military said on Friday that commanders were conducting situational assessments ahead of the next phase of the agreement currently being discussed, with troops deployed at various points around the Gaza Strip.

'CLEAR MANIPULATION'

Hamas said only 8,500 trucks out of the 12,000 that should have arrived so far had entered the territory, most containing food and secondary goods including chips and chocolate instead of more urgent items.

In addition, only 10% of the 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans needed to provide shelter had arrived, Hamas said, leaving hundreds of thousands in harsh winter weather.

Finally, heavy machinery needed to clear millions of tons of rubble and recover the thousands of bodies thought to be buried had not arrived.

Almost three weeks after the start of the ceasefire, "the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate dangerously", the Hamas statement said.

Israel has rejected accusations that it is dragging its feet on enabling the entry to aid supplies as "a completely unfounded claim", saying it has allowed in thousands of trucks, including tents and shelters.

COGAT said more than 100,000 tents had entered Gaza since the agreement came into force last month and that caravans were also being allowed in, while tractors had entered from Egypt since Sunday. It said 12,600 trucks had entered Gaza so far.

But hundreds of thousands of people are still marooned in tents and other makeshift shelters worn out by months of use as the fighting raged last year.

So far, despite accusations of ceasefire breaches levelled by both sides, the truce has held, leaving the way still open to an end to the war and rebuilding densely populated Gaza, which now lies in ruins.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages in Israel's heaviest loss of life in a single day since the founding of the state in 1948.

In response, Israel launched an air and ground war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the narrow enclave.



Amnesty International Says Israel and Aid System Use Starvation to Commit Gaza Genocide

Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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Amnesty International Says Israel and Aid System Use Starvation to Commit Gaza Genocide

Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Amnesty International issued a report Thursday claiming a controversial Israeli- and US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza uses starvation tactics against Palestinians to continue to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip during Israel's war with Hamas.

The UK-based human rights group condemned Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the US and Israel have backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.

Israel’s foreign minister denounced the Amnesty report, saying the organization has “joined forces with Hamas and fully adopted all of its propaganda lies.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near GHF distribution centers over the past month. The centers are guarded by private security contractors and located near Israeli military positions. Palestinian officials and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of opening fire at crowds of people moving near the sites.

The Amnesty report said Israel has “turned aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians” through GHF's militarized hubs. The conditions have created "a deadly mix of hunger and disease pushing the population past breaking point.”

“This devastating daily loss of life as desperate Palestinians try to collect aid is the consequence of their deliberate targeting by Israeli forces and the foreseeable consequence of irresponsible and lethal methods of distribution,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general.

Israel rejects claims

The Israeli army says it has fired warning shots to control crowds and only fires at people it says are acting suspiciously.

The Foreign Ministry and COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said Israel has facilitated the entry of over 3,000 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip since May 19 and GHF has delivered boxes of food with the equivalent of 56 million meals.

Humanitarian organizations say that amount is not nearly enough to meet overwhelming need in Gaza. GHF did not immediately return requests for comment.

The World Food Program says despite the new Israel-backed initiative, food consumption reached a critical low last month, with food diversity reaching its worst level since the conflict began.

“The continued closure of crossings, intensified violence since March, soaring food prices, and extremely limited humanitarian and commercial supplies have severely restricted access to even basic food items,” the WFP said in a June report.

GHF hubs are close to Israeli military positions

Amnesty’s report follows a statement earlier this week from more than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations calling for an immediate end to the foundation. They say the new mechanism allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and is ineffective.

It’s the latest sign of trouble for the GHF, a secretive initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of President Donald Trump. Last month, the US government pledged $30 million for the group to continue operation, the first known US donation to the group, whose other funding sources remain opaque.

GHF started distributing aid May 26 following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that pushed Gaza’s population of more than 2 million to the brink of famine.

Palestinian witnesses have described scenes of chaos around the distribution sites, and two contractors in the operation have told The Associated Press that colleagues fired live ammunition and stun grenades toward crowds of people. Palestinians often must travel long distances to reach the sites.

In a statement Tuesday, GHF rejected criticism of its operations and claimed it has delivered more than 52 million meals to hungry Palestinians.

“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” GHF said.

GHF has called for Israel’s military to investigate the allegations from Gaza’s Health Ministry, but last month the organization said there has been no violence in or around its centers and its personnel have not opened fire.

Israel demanded the alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The UN and aid groups deny there is significant diversion.

Amnesty's allegations of genocide Amnesty accused Israel last year of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure, and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.” It is challenging such allegations filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice and has rejected the International Criminal Court’s accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister committed war crimes in Gaza.