The Israeli military has said it would “significantly reinforce” areas around Gaza after Hamas announced its intention to postpone the release of Israeli hostages, part of a truce agreement for the territory.

“In accordance with the situational assessment, it was decided to raise the level of readiness and postpone leave for combat soldiers and operational units in the Southern Command…

“Additionally, it was decided to significantly reinforce the area with additional forces, for defensive missions,” the army said in a statement referring to its command responsible for Gaza.

Earlier, Hamas said that the next Gaza hostage-prisoner exchange may still take place as scheduled under the truce deal with Israel, after the group’s armed wing had announced an indefinite postponement.

The Palestinian militant group said that “Hamas has intentionally made this announcement five days before the scheduled prisoner handover, allowing mediators ample time to pressure the (Israeli) occupation towards fulfilling its obligations.

“The door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies.”

Hamas had said it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what it said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.

In reply, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Hamas had violated the ceasefire agreement with its announcement and that he had instructed the military to prepare at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and to defend Israeli communities.

Abu Ubaida, a spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, said that since the ceasefire came into effect on 19 January, Israel had delayed allowing displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, targeted Gazans with military shelling and gunfire and had stopped relief materials entering the territory.

The ceasefire has largely held over the past three weeks, although there have been some incidents where Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire.

The flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza has increased since the ceasefire, aid agencies say.

Ubaida said Hamas would not release any more hostages until Israel “complies and compensates for the past weeks”.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “all the families of the hostages were informed this evening of Hamas’s announcement”.

“The families were made aware that the state of Israel is committed to respecting the agreement and considers any violation of it with the utmost seriousness,” it added.

Another exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners was scheduled to take place on Saturday.

So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be released in the first 42-day phase of the deal have come home, as well as five Thai hostages who were returned in an unscheduled release.

In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of prisoners and detainees, ranging from prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks to Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.

But Hamas has accused Israel of dragging its feet on allowing aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the agreement, a charge Israel has rejected as untrue.

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In turn, Israel has accused Hamas of not respecting the order in which the hostages were to be released and of orchestrating abusive public displays before large crowds when they have been handed over to the Red Cross.

Earlier, Mr Netanyahu’ office had said an Israeli delegation had returned from ceasefire talks in Qatar, amid already growing doubts over the Egyptian and Qatari-brokered process to end the war.

There were no immediate details on the reason for the return from the talks, which are intended to agree the basis for a second stage of the multi-phase ceasefire agreement and hostage-for-prisoner exchange reached last month.

A Palestinian official close to the discussions said progress was being held up by mistrust between the two sides, which have accused each other of breaching the terms of the ceasefire.

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Trump says Palestinians would not have right to return under plan

US President Donald Trump’s statements that Palestinians should be moved out of Gaza, leaving the coastal enclave to be developed as a waterfront real estate project under US control have upended expectations for the postwar future.

Asked about the plan and whether Palestinians would have the right of return, Mr Trump told Fox News: “No, they wouldn’t”.

“I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever – it’s not habitable.”

He said he thought he could make a deal with Egypt and Jordan to take them.

Mr Netanyahu endorsed Mr Trump’s comments when he returned from a visit to Washington at the weekend, causing irritation in Egypt, where security sources said Israel was “putting up roadblocks” to the smooth progress of the ceasefire deal, including delays to withdrawal of its troops and continuing aerial surveillance.

Talks on a second stage of the ceasefire deal, to agree the release of the remaining hostages and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, began last week but have shown little sign of serious progress.

“There is a sense of mistrust, especially as Hamas sees a lack of implementation of the first phase of the deal when it comes to the humanitarian protocol and the allowing of the materials into Gaza as per the agreement,” the official said.

Israeli public opinion was shocked by the emaciated appearance of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, the three hostages who were released on Saturday, which has complicated progress on the deal.

Three people killed during Israeli raid in West Bank

The Palestinian health ministry has said that Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead three people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, while the military said it had “targeted terrorists” in a raid.

It later said that military police had launched an investigation into the death of the woman.

Israeli forces launched an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, at dawn yesterday, as part of an ongoing offensive in nearby camps, the military said.

The Palestinian health ministry said the 23-year-old woman was killed while her husband was critically injured.

“Medical teams were unable to save the baby’s life due to the (Israeli) occupation preventing the transfer of the injured to the hospital,” it added.

The Israeli military said that “an investigation was opened by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division”.

Murad Alyan, a member of the popular committee in the Nur Shams camp, said the couple was “trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car”.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it described as “a crime of execution committed by the occupation forces”, accusing Israeli troops of “deliberately targeting defenceless civilians”.

The health ministry later said a second woman was killed in a separate incident in Nur Shams.

A source in the camp’s popular committee said she died and her father was wounded when “Israeli forces used explosives to open the door of their family house”.

Late yesterday, the health ministry said that a third Palestinian, a 20-year-old man, had been killed “after being shot by Israeli forces” in the camp.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the incidents.

Footage showed army bulldozers clearing a path in front of buildings in the densely packed camp, which is home to about 13,000 people.

The Israeli military said that its forces were “expanding the operation in northern Samaria” – using the biblical term for the north of the West Bank – which Israel has occupied since 1967.

“The combat team of the Ephraim Brigade began operations in Nur Shams,” the military said in a statement, adding that soldiers had “targeted several terrorists and arrested additional individuals in the area”.

At least 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank this year, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Violence has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in Gaza.

The ministry said that at least 887 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the conflict began.

At least 32 Israelis, including soldiers, have died after Palestinian attacks or confrontations over the same period in the West Bank, according to official Israeli figures.