BAITULMAQDIS – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas on Monday of consequences it “cannot imagine” if the Palestinian Islamist movement did not release the hostages still being held in Gaza.
“I tell Hamas: If you do not release our hostages, there will be consequences that you cannot imagine,” Netanyahu told lawmakers.
Defence Minister Israel Katz later struck a similar tone, saying if the group did not free the hostages, “the gates of Gaza will be locked, and the gates of hell will open”.
“We will return to fighting, and they will face the (army) with forces and methods they have never encountered — until a decisive victory,” he said in a statement.
Netanyahu has faced pressure from critics in Israel, including family members of hostages, who have blamed him for delays in bringing the captives home.
Scuffles broke out Monday between guards and relatives of hostages at parliament, where the families were calling for a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.
On Sunday, Israel blocked aid flowing into Gaza as the first six-week phase of the ceasefire there drew to a close.
The truce had enabled the entry of vital food, shelter and medical assistance after more than 15 months of fighting.
Under the first phase, Hamas handed over 25 living hostages and eight bodies in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Israel had announced a truce extension until mid-April that it said United States Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had proposed.
But Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension of the first phase, instead favouring a transition to the two remaining stages of the ceasefire agreement, which could bring a permanent end to the war.
Israeli media on Monday reported that Netanyahu planned to exert “maximum pressure” on Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase under Israel’s terms.
Public broadcaster Kan reported that Netanyahu wants to extend the first stage by at least a week, until the arrival of Witkoff in the region.
Citing sources close to Netanyahu, Kan reported that the prime minister was waiting to see if mediators can persuade Hamas to extend the first phase, failing which he is considering resuming fighting.
Kan said Israel has drafted plans to ramp up pressure on Hamas this week under a scheme dubbed the “Hell Plan”.
The plan includes displacing residents from the northern Gaza Strip to the south and cutting off electricity.
The last resort would be a full return to fighting, this time using heavy US-made bombs recently released by the administration of President Donald Trump, Kan said.
But the daily newspaper Israel Hayoum said that Netanyahu, unlike his far-right allies in government, “wants to exhaust all possibilities of freeing hostages before returning to war”. – AFP
