Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned Hamas on Tuesday that if hostages were not released by noon on Saturday, the cease-fire in the war in the Gaza Strip would end and Israeli troops would resume “intense fighting.”
Mr. Netanyahu said that Hamas’s threat on Monday to postpone the next round of hostage releases amounted to a decision to violate the cease-fire agreement. While the threat was clear, Mr. Netanyahu did not specify how many hostages would have to be freed to stop a renewed war.
The prime minister’s office, when asked for clarity, declined to confirm how many hostages Mr. Netanyahu was referring to.
His statements closely echoed President Trump’s ultimatum on Monday evening to Hamas that said if all remaining Israeli hostages were not released from Gaza by 12 o’clock on Saturday, then the cease-fire agreement with Israel should be canceled and “all hell is going to break out.”
Originally, three Israelis were to be freed this week in the latest hostage-for-prisoner exchange as required by the cease-fire deal to end the war that began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Most of the exchanges so far have taken place on Saturdays.
So far, 16 of 33 Israeli hostages who were set to be released in the first phase of this cease-fire have been freed. About 60 other hostages, some of whom are believed to be dead, were to be released later this spring under a second phase of the deal.
In a video posted after a four-hour meeting with his security cabinet, Mr. Netanyahu said that he and his top advisers had been shocked by the emaciated appearances of three Israeli men who were freed last Saturday.
“The decision I passed in the cabinet, unanimously, is this: If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the cease-fire will end, and the I.D.F. will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated,” Mr. Netanyahu said in the video, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
Mr. Netanyahu also reiterated his order issued on Monday night to reinforce troops in and around Gaza but did not specifically say they were planning to recapture territory from which Israel had recently withdrawn.
“This operation is currently underway,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “It will be completed as soon as possible.”
In a statement Tuesday evening, the Israeli military said it was mobilizing reservists among the troops that would be part of the operation.
Hamas did not immediately respond to Mr. Netanyahu’s statements.
In its threat on Monday to delay the next round of hostages to be released, the armed Palestinian group accused Israel of violating parts of the cease-fire agreement, including by slowing sufficient humanitarian aid in and around Gaza. Israel has denied the claim.
After Hamas’s 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted to Gaza, Israel had bombarded the territory, aiming to decimate the militants. At least 48,000 Palestinians have been killed during the fighting, according to Gazan health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Millions of Palestinians have also been displaced in the enclave, and many are returning to neighborhoods in ruins.
Hamas was infuriated by Mr. Trump’s proposal — which he announced with Mr. Netanyahu at the White House last week and then repeated several times — to relocate about two million Palestinians out of Gaza and rebuild the war-torn territory to turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Mr. Trump also said its former residents would not be allowed to return. The forced deportation of a civilian population is a war crime under international law.
Mr. Trump has said he would “make a deal” with Jordan and Egypt to take in the Palestinians — a move that would destabilize both countries and that has been flatly rejected by their leaders. During a meeting in Washington with King Abdullah II of Jordan on Tuesday, Mr. Trump insisted that the United States had the authority to “take” Gaza and that other countries in the region would absorb the Palestinians who live there.
His proposal has ignited widespread anger among Arab states in the Middle East and even some American allies in Europe. It also raised concerns in Israel that Mr. Netanyahu now had a political escape hatch to end the cease-fire negotiations and, instead, return to war.
Responding to Mr. Netanyahu on Tuesday, a group representing the hostages’ families urged him to continue the diplomatic talks.
“You made the decision to bring all our hostages home through an agreement,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. “We must not go backwards. We cannot allow the hostages to waste away in captivity.” It concluded: “Complete the full negotiations immediately, and bring back every last hostage with utmost urgency.”
The first phase of the cease-fire deal was struck last month between Israel and Hamas and was set to expire on March 2. Some Israeli officials have opposed a second stage of the deal that would include talks on how to fully end the 16-month war, urging the government instead to have the military continue fighting Hamas.
“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 in order to usher in a lasting peace.
“Netanyahu, go to Doha,” the opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on social media earlier on Tuesday. “Bring everyone home. Time is running out.”
The specter of the cease-fire falling apart rattled some 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 before the cabinet meeting. “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.”
Reporting was contributed by Patrick Kingsley, Gabby Sobelman, Natan Odenheimer, Ephrat Livni and Aaron Boxerman.
