GAZA: Israel's military has called up reservists in preparation for a possible resumption of fighting in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to release more Israeli captives and a nearly month-old ceasefire breaks down.
Concern that the ceasefire will collapse is growing as fury mounts in Arab countries over President Donald Trump's plan for the United States to take over Gaza, resettle its Palestinian inhabitants and build an international beach resort.
A Hamas official said Egypt and Qatar, which together with the United States mediated the ceasefire deal that went into force on January 19, had stepped up efforts to break the impasse and the Palestinian group's Gaza chief, Khalil Al Hayya, arrived in Cairo to discuss the ceasefire. Hamas agreed under the ceasefire deal to free three more captives on Saturday but said this week that it was suspending the handover over what it said were Israeli violations of the terms.
Trump responded by saying all captives must be freed by noon on Saturday or he would "let hell break out".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then said on Tuesday that his country would resume "intense fighting" if Hamas did not meet the deadline, but did not say how many captives should be freed.
Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to gather forces in and around Gaza, and the military announced it was deploying additional forces to Israel's south, including mobilising reservists.
The standoff threatens to reignite a conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip, internally displaced most of its people, caused shortages of food and running water, and pushed the Middle East to the brink of a wider regional war. Gazans expressed alarm that the ceasefire might collapse and urged Hamas and Israeli leaders to agree on an extension.
"We had barely started believing that a truce would happen and that a solution was on the way, God willing," said Lotfy Abu Taha, a resident of Rafah in southern Gaza. "The people are suffering. The people are the victims."
In a further sign of Arab anger over Trump's vision of Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi would not go to Washington for talks if the agenda included Trump's plan to displace Palestinians. The date for such a visit has not been announced, and the Egyptian presidency and foreign ministry did not comment.
Negotiators hope a second phase of ceasefire talks will secure agreement on releasing the remaining captives and a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. Palestinians fear a repeat of the "Nakba", or catastrophe, when nearly 800,000 people fled or were driven out of Palestine during the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation. SEE ALSO P6
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