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PHOTO CAPTION:  Hamas militants stand next to Keith Siegel, a U.S.-Israeli hostage held in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack, before handing him over to Red Cross staff as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, Feb. 1, 2025

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Gaza ceasefire at risk?

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas said Monday it will delay the further release of hostages in the Gaza Strip after accusing Israel of violating a fragile ceasefire that now faces its most serious crisis since it began three weeks ago.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under heavy pressure to secure the release of remaining hostages after three Israelis freed Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, came home emaciated after 16 months in captivity. Yet in a sign of the precarious nature of the truce, the Israeli military said late Monday it had canceled leave for soldiers assigned to Gaza.

Hamas’ said its plan to delay the next hostage release “until further notice” depended on whether Trump's recent comments that Palestinians from Gaza would not have a right to return under his proposal for the U.S. to take over the war-torn territory.

In an effort to improve relations with the Trump administration, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday ended a controversial system that paid stipends to the families of Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted in deadly attacks on Israel. The U.S. and Israel have said the so-called “martyrs fund” rewarded violence against Israel.

Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week ceasefire during which Hamas has committed to releasing 33 hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

The sides have carried out five swaps since the ceasefire’s first phase went into effect on Jan. 19, freeing 21 hostages and over 730 Palestinian prisoners. The next exchange, scheduled for Saturday, Feb, 15th, called for three more Israeli hostages to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The war could resume in early March if no agreement is reached on the more complicated second phase of the ceasefire, which calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce.

Threatening a fragile ceasefire deal

An Israeli official said Netanyahu was consulting security officials after the Hamas announcement. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Netanyahu also pushed forward a scheduled meeting of his Security Cabinet to Tuesday morning from later in the day.

In addition to canceling leave for soldiers in Gaza, the Israeli military also said Monday it was bolstering defensive forces responsible for areas along the border with Gaza.

A judge granted Netanyahu’s request to postpone his testimony in an ongoing corruption trial on Tuesday due to the security situation.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hamas’ plan to delay the next release of hostages was “a complete violation” of the ceasefire agreement and that he instructed the Israeli military to be on the highest level of alert. The prime minister’s coordinator for hostages said the Israeli government intends to live up to its end of the agreement.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said on social media that Israel has obstructed key provisions of the ceasefire by not allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, carrying out strikes across the territory and failing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid.

The group later put out a statement calling its planned postponement a “warning signal,” adding that “the door remains open for the exchange to proceed as planned if Israel abides by its obligations.”

The group representing many of the families of hostages called on mediating countries to prevent the deal from collapsing.

“Recent evidence from those released, as well as the shocking conditions of the hostages released last Saturday, leaves no room for doubt — time is of the essence, and all hostages must be urgently rescued from this horrific situation,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said. 

 In Gaza, Palestinians fretted the possibility of the truce falling apart. 

“People are all afraid. Today, people have begun to stock up on supplies for fear that war will return again,” said Mohammad Yusuf of Khan Younis. “There is no safety, because any defect in the agreement leads to the return of war, and the threat of a return of war.”

Trump made his latest comments about Gaza in an interview with FOX News set to air Monday, less than a week after he floated his plan for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” He has also ramped up pressure on Arab states, especially U.S. allies Jordan and Egypt, to take in Palestinians from Gaza, who claim the territory as part of a future homeland.

The ceasefire previously hit a snag when an Israeli female civilian held hostage wasn’t released as early as planned, and Israel delayed the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza for two days. Negotiators were able to find a solution, and the hostage, Arbel Yehoud, was eventually released with two other hostages.

Palestinian Authority ends payments to prisoners’ families

Under the new system announced by Abbas, the Palestinian president, prisoners’ families will still be eligible for government assistance, but only depending on their financial needs. Previously, payments were determined based on the amount of time a prisoner had spent in prison.

The system will also be transferred from the Palestinian government to an outside foundation.

There was no immediate reaction from the U.S. or Israel.

During Trump’s first term, the U.S. halted assistance to the Palestinian Authority because of the martyr’s fund. Israel has withheld hundreds of millions of dollars of tax transfers to the cash-strapped authority because of the policy.

A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinians have informed the Trump administration of the decision and hope the U.S. legislation cutting assistance, known as the Taylor Force Act, will be rescinded and that Israel will unfreeze the transfers. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal deliberations.

Hamas condemned the Palestinian Authority’s move, calling it “an unpatriotic move that violates one of our core national principles.”

(Associated Press writer Samy Magdy contributed from Cairo.).  

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Hamas militants released three frail Israel hostages in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners, some also emaciated, on Saturday, Feb 8th

After the fifth handoff since the cease-fire on Jan. 25, Hamas has now released 16 Israeli hostages as part of the first phase of the cease-fire agreement. Eight of the 33 promised hostages are dead, according to the Israeli government.

Ohad Ben Ami, 56; Eli Sharabi, 52; and Or Levy, 34, were taken hostage during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Ben Ami and Sharabi were captured from their homes in Kibbutz Be'eri, about 2.5 miles from the Gaza border, and Levy, 34, was attending the Nova music festival near kibbutz  Re'im when he was kidnapped.

They were handed to the Red Cross in the central city of Deir al-Balah on day 491 of their captivity in Gaza. Israel Defense Forces in Gaza transferred them back to Israel for an initial medical assessment before being reunited with their families.

Supporters, waving flags and holding placards, lined the route near Re'im.

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American-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel was among three hostages released by Hamas militants in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Saturday, Feb. 1st, more than 15 months after they were taken captive by the group during its Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack. Siegel was freed in Gaza City about two hours after Israelis Yarden Bibas and Ofer Calderon were released in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military confirmed that all three hostages were in its care and back in Israel after first being handed over to Red Cross personnel in Gaza. Siegel appeared to have lost weight during his captivity, but he waved and smiled as Hamas militants prepared to hand him over to Red Cross staff. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said the three freed men would be reunited with family members and taken for medical checks and care at hospitals in Israel.

Both handovers were conducted quickly Saturday and without the chaos seen during the previous exchange, which angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who delayed the corresponding Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners by several hours.

Israel was expected to free about 90 more Palestinians from its prisons on Saturday in exchange for the release of the three hostages, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement that took effect on January 19.

Keith Siegel is the 1st American freed during the new ceasefire

Originally from North Carolina, Siegel moved to Israel four decades ago. He was among seven American citizens taken as hostages into Gaza during Hamas' unprecedented Oct. 7 attack, which saw militants kill around 1,200 people in southern Israel and take 251 others captive.

Israel's military assault on Hamas in response has killed more than 47,400 people, according to the Palestinian territory's Hamas-run Ministry of Health, left entire neighborhoods leveled and caused a humanitarian catastrophe by displacing virtually the entire enclave's population and destroying its infrastructure.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Saturday that Americans are celebrating the return of Siegel.

"President Trump and his administration have worked diligently to secure their release and are committed to freeing all remaining hostages," she said.

It is believed that at least two of the six American hostages still held in Gaza are alive — Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Edan Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey. Four other Americans are believed to have been killed in captivity.

Siegel's wife Aviva was also taken hostage by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, but was released in an earlier hostage and prisoner swap in November 2023.

Speaking to CBS News about a year after her release, Aviva Siegel said there were moments as Hamas militants forced her and her husband through tunnels under the Gaza Strip that they felt "sure we were going to die."

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The top American envoy to the Middle East, Steven Witkoff, met on Wednesday with Israel’s prime minister on the eve of another round of hostage releases, aiming to reinforce a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that, if made permanent, would allow thousands more displaced Palestinians to return to their homes.

Envoy Wilkoff was also expected to inspect the Netzarim Corridor, a four-mile strip that bisects Gaza, where American security contractors have been enlisted to help handle the return of displaced Palestinians. He would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Gaza in years, both because of security concerns and the official American no-contact policy with Hamas.

An Israeli official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that. Witkoff arrived in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several of his top aides after discussions on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for a broader Middle East peace plan. Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, was also at the meeting between Witkoff and Netanyahu on Wednesday, according to another Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the minister’s schedule.

David Mencer, a government spokesman, said that the Israeli authorities would not discuss whether Witkoff had visited the Netzarim Corridor, until after all meetings on Wednesday were concluded. Witkoff said in a Fox News interview last week that he planned to visit both the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza and, farther south, the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt during the trip, but the timing was unclear as travel schedules are usually closely held to ensure security. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. 

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Negotiations have begun regarding Phase Two of the Ceasefire.  This is a hopeful sign that the ceasefire will continue through the rest promised by both Hamas and Israel will come to fruition including more hostages will be released and troops will continue to withdraw without violations.  Both sides are actively negotiate setting the standards, timeline, and accomplishments toward a stable and peaceful ceasefire in Gaza.  All are anxiously awaiting good news.

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We will be keeping a close watch on the progress of this ceasefire and release of hostages. Stay tuned.