Hamas to delay hostage releases accusing Israel of ceasefire violations

Hamas announced on Monday 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 the Palestinian group had violated the ceasefire agreement with its announcement and said 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 January 19, 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".

Another exchange 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. 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.

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, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 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.