Main events on February 12th
- A Hamas delegation is in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for talks as Egypt and Qatar scramble to rescue the fragile ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian group.
- Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said there are “positive signals” that three Israeli captives will be released as planned on Saturday, but the group has not received a commitment from Israel that it would adhere to the deal.
- The comment comes as Israel issued more threats to resume the war in Gaza, with its defence chief warning of a “different intensity” altogether and threatening to realise US President Donald Trump’s vision to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian enclave.
- Israeli forces killed at least one Palestinian in southern Gaza and continued its siege on the north of the occupied West Bank, forcing hundreds more people to flee their homes in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
- Israel is again seeking to renege on its commitments under the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, requesting ceasefire monitors to extend the deadline to pull out its troops in southern Lebanon from February 18 to February 28, according to Israeli media.
Israel threatens ‘hell’ for Gaza as mediators scramble to salvage ceasefire deal
Israel Katz, reiterating comments by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, just a day before, noting that if Hamas doesn’t release the captives by noon local time on Saturday, the war would resume.
But the defence minister’s comments were a little bit more severe, saying that the war will be much different in its intensity and scale and that “the gates of hell would open on Gaza”.
This is a little bit difficult to comprehend given just how much carnage we witnessed in the 15 months of war, with tens of thousands of people killed, and nearly the entirety of the Gaza Strip destroyed.
But Hamas has accused Israel of violating the deal in the first place, saying that they are holding up critical and vital humanitarian aid that is supposed to come into the Strip in the form of tents, caravans and other temporary shelters to house Palestinians in the interim.
In the meantime, the Israeli military is drafting a plan for the potential resumption of the war, and Netanyahu was set to visit the Israeli military Southern Command Centre, that’s according to Israeli media, to talk about the next steps for what is going to happen if this war was to resume.
Nonetheless, mediators are scrambling behind the scenes to try and make sure that this ceasefire holds. This was a sensitive deal from the beginning, one that was never guaranteed.
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