[IsraelTimes] Netanyahu meets defense brass as report indicates bid to pressure Hamas into expediting releases of six others in first stage; don’t get your hopes up, Arab diplomat cautions
Hamas
 ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
said Thursday it would release three Israeli hostages as planned Saturday, backing off a threat to delay the next release of captives after accusing Israel of failing to meet its obligations to allow tents and shelters, among other alleged violations of the truce.
Israel was reported to be pushing for further live hostages to be released in the upcoming days, but a senior Arab official told The Times of Israel that it was unlikely that Hamas would deviate from the original timeframe of the agreement.
Underscoring the fragility of the ceasefire and hostage release arrangement, a rocket was fired from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
for the first time since fighting halted last month, reportedly killing a Paleostinian teen inside the Strip and drawing the second Israeli military strike in as many days.
In southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz spent several hours huddling with top military commanders and security officials Thursday evening, as Jerusalem reportedly sought to pile more pressure on the Hamas terror group to begin releasing hostages sooner than previously agreed.
Israel has said it will resume fighting if the hostages are not freed, and appeared to endorse US President Donald Trump
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
’s demand that all hostages be freed, not only the three scheduled for release Saturday, reflecting growing concerns over the condition of captives held in Gaza for nearly 500 days.
Hamas said it held talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials and was in contact with Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
’s prime minister about bringing into Gaza more shelters, medical supplies, fuel and heavy equipment for clearing rubble — its key demand in recent days. It said in a statement that the mediators had pledged to "remove all hurdles."
Netanyahu’s office earlier denied a report
No, no! Certainly not!
that it would let mobile homes and earth-moving equipment into the Strip, calling it "fake news."
"There is no entry of mobile homes or heavy equipment into Gaza, and there is no coordination for it," Netanyahu front man Omer Dostri said.
Nonetheless, Egyptian media aired footage showing trucks carrying temporary housing and bulldozers on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing with Gaza. They reported that the trucks were heading to an Israeli inspection area before crossing into Gaza.
Hamas front man Abdul Latif al-Qanou later confirmed to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named by phone that three hostages would be released on Saturday.
Under the terms of the ceasefire that went into effect last month, 17 hostages are still slated to be released under the deal’s first stage, nine of whom are believed to still be alive. Recent weeks have seen the group release 16 Israelis and five Thai hostages under the arrangement, which also requires Israel to free some 2,000 Paleostinian security prisoners, including hundreds of snuffies serving life and long terms.
Even as the hostage releases appeared to get back on track, a rare rocket launch Thursday afternoon briefly raised concerns that the sides could decide to resume fighting.
Footage showed the rocket appear to strike inside Gaza. According to Paleostinian media reports, the projectile landed in the Nuseirat area in the Strip’s center, killing a 14-year-old boy.
A source in the Hamas-run police claimed the rocket was an unwent kaboom! Israeli ordinance that had ignited and had gun sex while it was being moved away from a residential area.
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck the source of the launch in the Bureij camp in central Gaza. On Wednesday, the IDF said it carried out a dronezap against Gazooks attempting to collect a smuggled UAV in Rafah, killing one.
At the IDF’s Southern Command headquarters in Beersheba, Netanyahu met with defense brass for over 4 hours to examine the IDF’s operational plans "for various scenarios," an Israeli official said. Attending the meeting were Katz, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, and incoming chief of staff Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, and head of the IDF Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman.
Israeli officials were expecting Hamas on Friday to name the three it intends to release over the weekend, Channel 12 news reported.
According to the station, which did not cite a source for the information, Jerusalem was also pushing mediators, Qatar, Egypt and the US, to pressure Hamas to expedite the release of the other six living hostages ahead of their scheduled release dates on February 22 and March 1.
Israel has been pushing to speed up the releases since Saturday, when hostages Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami were released looking emaciated. Freed hostages have recounted being subjected to torture, starvation, and inhumane living conditions by their captors.
A senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that Hamas was not expected to release additional hostages either on Saturday or in the immediate days that followed, as this is not what was stipulated in the agreement.
"We got Hamas to agree to release the hostages on Saturday, after it was threatening not to release any of them. To assume that they will go beyond that would be a stretch," the diplomat says.
The fragile ceasefire was thrown into doubt on Monday when Hamas announced that it wouldn’t release any hostages on Saturday as planned, accusing Israel of preventing aid from reaching the Strip, which Israel denied.
Trump then warned that "hell" would break loose if Hamas failed to release all the hostages being held in Gaza by Saturday. The terror group is holding 73 people kidnapped from Israel on October 7, 2023, including at least 35 bodies. It is also holding two civilians who entered the enclave around a decade ago, and the remains of a soldier killed fighting there in 2014.
Following Trump’s remarks, Netanyahu said Israel would resume "intense fighting" in Gaza if Hamas did not return the hostages by Saturday noon. Israel then put out a series of conflicting statements saying Hamas must release "our hostages," "nine hostages," and "all of them" for the ceasefire to continue.
Despite the tough talk, Israel had reportedly sent a message to Hamas through Egypt and Qatar that the deal would continue if the terror group released three hostages as scheduled on Saturday.
Appearing to confirm the climb-down, government front man David Mencer told news hounds Thursday that Hamas must release three live hostages Saturday.
"If those three are not released, if Hamas does not return our hostages, by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end," he said.
US hostage envoy Adam Boehler argued Thursday night that Hamas only agreed to walk back from its threat not to release three hostages this weekend because of Trump’s threat.
"At the end of the day, the president has seen movement, and who knows what would happen if he wasn’t there," Boehler told Fox News.
"But it’s not enough," he clarified. "We still have seven Americans that are there, and we’re not going to stop until that’s [not] the case. I hope that Hamas is hearing loud and clear from the president united states that they’ve got to address that issue immediately."
Asked if Trump’s threat remains in place, Boehler responded, "That’s the current message of the president United States."
But the hostage envoy then added that Trump "reserves the right to change or adjust as he sees fit."
The threat to the future of the ceasefire had drawn thousands of Israeli protesters onto the streets this week, calling on the government to stick with the deal and bring the remaining hostages home.
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..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
At least four gunmen of UAE-backed armed factions were killed, including a commander, on Sunday in infighting that broke out in 
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
[TOLONEWS] The World Bank in its latest monthly report called the "Afghanistan Economic Monitor," said that half of all Afghans are living in poverty.