The Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades announced on Saturday that it had delayed the release of the captives due to the Israeli regime’s refusal to let aid trucks get into the northern Gaza Strip in violation of the truce deal.
The Brigades said it was delaying the handover of the captives until the regime “adheres to the terms of the agreement”, according to the AFP news agency.
The four-day truce, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, was announced earlier this week following long negotiations and came into force at 7am Gaza time on Friday.
Under the deal, fighting is paused, air traffic is halted over northern Gaza for certain hours a day and over southern Gaza completely.
Over the course of four days, Hamas will release 50 women and children from among 240 captives it captured during its October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Storm. In exchange, the Israeli regime will release 150 Palestinian women and children held in its jails.
Israeli media have reported that the regime has threatened to resume its ground operation in Gaza at 12am local time in case that the second batch of the captives are not released.
Channel 12 of Israel’s TV, citing a political source on Saturday night, said that the regime had fulfilled its commitments under the truce deal, accusing Hamas of creating troubles for itself and the mediating parties.
In the meantime, American media said that the agreement of exchanging prisoners and captives is still in place and Qatar will make efforts to resolve the issue.
The first batch of prisoners and captives were exchanged on Friday. Hamas released 24 captives, including 13 Israelis, 10 Thai nationals and one Filipino. Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.
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