The radical Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday afternoon he announced to have postponed the release of the hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack on Israeli territory. The release was expected as part of the four-day truce decided this week. On Friday, Hamas released 24 hostages in exchange for the release of 39 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. However, on Saturday, while a new exchange seemed imminent, Hamas announced that it had decided to postpone everything, accusing Israel of having violated the terms of the agreement. At the moment it is not clear whether the exchange will take place in the next few hours or in the next few days.
In a Hamas press release he said that he postponed the exchange because, according to him, Israel is not sending a sufficient number of humanitarian aid to the north of the Gaza Strip, i.e. the area of the Strip that has been invaded and occupied for days now by the Israeli army. It is unclear whether sending humanitarian aid to the northern Strip was actually part of the deal.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, who works for Axios, dice which according to one of its sources, Hamas postponed the agreement because on Friday Israel used non-agreed criteria to choose the prisoners to be released. This reconstruction, however, has not been officially confirmed.
In theory, Hamas should have freed 13 or 14 hostages on Saturday, while Israel should have freed 42 women and minors held in its prisons.