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The future of the cease-fire in Gaza and the territory\u2019s long-term fate hung in the balance on Tuesday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned Hamas that if the scheduled release of hostages did not take place on Saturday, Israeli troops would resume \u201cintense fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s warning came after Hamas said on Monday it would indefinitely postpone the next round of hostage releases, which he said amounted to a \u201cdecision to violate the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
His statement echoed President Trump\u2019s demand a day earlier that all remaining hostages must be freed by 12 o\u2019clock on Saturday or \u201call hell is going to break out.\u201d But the prime minister did not say that all captives still in Gaza had to be freed; under the terms of the cease-fire, only three were supposed to be let go on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu also reiterated an order he issued on Monday night to reinforce troops in and around Gaza, but he did not say they were planning to recapture territory from which Israel had recently withdrawn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThis operation is currently underway,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be completed as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Analysts said it was possible that Israel and Hamas would reach a compromise before Saturday on this weekend\u2019s scheduled round of hostage releases. Another hurdle looms in March, when the cease-fire is set to elapse unless Hamas and Israel negotiate an extension.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crisis is a prelude for a much bigger crisis that is coming in early March,\u201d said Ibrahim Dalalsha, the director of the Horizon Center, a political research group in the West Bank of Ramallah.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump repeated his ultimatum on freeing the remaining hostages while meeting on Tuesday with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House. \u201cThey either have them out by Saturday at 12 p.m. or all bets are off,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump\u2019s pronouncements this week \u2014 including his statements that the United States will take over the devastated territory and that its Palestinian residents have no rights to return \u2014 have infuriated Hamas, flummoxed world leaders and amplified the sense of chaos surrounding the cease-fire negotiations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Trump has said the United States will rebuild Gaza into the \u201cRiviera of the Middle East,\u201d and on Monday he threatened to withdraw financial support for Egypt and Jordan<\/a> unless they take in all the Palestinians who would be displaced by that effort.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n During his meeting with King Abdullah on Tuesday, Mr. Trump insisted that the United States had the authority to \u201ctake\u201d Gaza and that other countries in the region would absorb the Palestinians who live there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will have Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a war-torn area. We\u2019re going to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n Jordan\u2019s Parliament last week introduced a bill that would ban the resettlement of Palestinians in the country. But King Abdullah is trying to protect the more than $1.5 billion in foreign aid his country receives from the United States. He said in the meeting that Jordan was willing to take in 2,000 Palestinian children<\/a> with cancer or otherwise very ill \u201cright away.\u201d Mr. Trump called the offer \u201ca beautiful gesture.\u201d<\/p>\n Hamas, in a statement on Tuesday, called Mr. Trump\u2019s broader proposal of removing Gazans \u201cethnic cleansing.\u201d The group added, \u201cThe plan to deport our people from Gaza will not succeed, and they will be faced with a unified Palestinian, Arab and Islamic position that rejects all displacement plans.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Egypt said in a statement released by a spokesperson for the foreign ministry that it intended to present to the United States a \u201ccomprehensive vision for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip\u201d that \u201censures the Palestinian people remain in their homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The first phase of the cease-fire deal was struck last month between Israel and Hamas, and it was set to expire on March 2. Originally, three Israelis were to be freed this week in the latest hostage-for-prisoner exchange as required under the agreement. Most of the exchanges have taken place on Saturdays.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, some of whom are believed to be dead, were to be released later this spring under a second phase of the deal.<\/p>\n