Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel held an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday after Hamas said it was postponing the next release of Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip, increasing the pressure on an already fragile three-week cease-fire.
The security cabinet was set to consider how — or whether — to move forward with ongoing negotiations to secure the safe release of all hostages this spring. The meeting began shortly after midday in Jerusalem, according to three Israeli officials.
Ahead of the meeting, relatives of the hostages blocked Israel’s main highway Tuesday morning with protest signs and orange smoke bombs. Even as one family rejoiced in receiving a proof-of-life message about 27-year-old twins Gali and Ziv Berman, another was told that Shlomo Mantzur, the oldest hostage at 86, had been killed.
Mr. Netanyahu moved up Tuesday’s meeting after Hamas said on Monday it would indefinitely postpone the release of several more hostages who had been expected to be freed on Saturday. Hamas accused Israel of violating parts of the cease-fire agreement.
Later on Monday night, President Trump threw down a gauntlet of his own, demanding that all of the remaining hostages be released by 12 o’clock on Saturday or “all hell is going to break out.”
Only a handful of Israeli hostages have been released each week since the cease-fire began, coinciding with the freeing of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as required under the first stage of the negotiated deal.
Sixteen of 33 Israeli hostages have been released so far as required in the initial part of the deal that is set to expire in early March. About 60 other hostages, some of whom are believed to be dead, would be released in a second phase intended to last six weeks.
But some Israeli officials have resisted a second stage of the deal that would include talks on how to fully end the 15-month war, urging instead to continue fighting Hamas and, potentially, rescue the hostages sooner.
“Trump is right! Go back and destroy now!” the far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a social media post on Tuesday morning.
Others want the negotiations, which have been held in Doha with the United States, Egypt and Qatar serving as intermediaries, to continue as the only way to ensure the hostages’ safety and usher in a lasting peace.
“The sign of life from twins Gali and Ziv Berman is a wake-up call this morning to the Israeli government,” the opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on social media. “Netanyahu, go to Doha. Bring everyone home. Time is running out.”
Hamas’s announcement of a delay in the next hostages-for-prisoners exchange was issued after Mr. Trump repeatedly said that Palestinians should be removed from Gaza and relocated to Jordan and Egypt. The forced deportation of a civilian population is a war crime under international law.
In an interview on Fox News that aired Monday night, Mr. Trump said the roughly two million Palestinians in Gaza would not have the right to eventually return to their homeland, “because they’re going to have much better housing — in other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”
On Tuesday, Hamas appeared undeterred by Mr. Trump’s most recent comments. “Trump should remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both sides, and this is the only path for the hostages’ return,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Palestinians, Arab states and even some American allies in Europe have roundly rejected his proposal to force Gazans from their homes.
King Abdullah II of Jordan was to meet with Mr. Trump in Washington on Tuesday. But plans for an upcoming visit by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt appear to have been scrapped, Arab media reported.
Mr. Sisi spoke Tuesday with Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, and the two agreed that negotiations to allow the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and more humanitarian aid should continue, according to a statement released after the phone call by the Egyptian president’s office.
“They also underscored the imperative to begin the reconstruction of Gaza to make it livable again, without displacing its Palestinian population, safeguarding their rights and ability to live on their land,” the statement noted pointedly.
The specter of the cease-fire falling apart rattled other world leaders.
“We must avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza that would lead to immense tragedy,” António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, wrote on social media. “I appeal to Hamas to proceed with the planned liberation of hostages. Both sides must fully abide by their commitments in the cease-fire agreement & resume serious negotiations.”
Gabby Sobelman, Natan Odenheimer and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.
