Hamas Compromises

We read in a report from The Jerusalem Post that Hamas has no intention of releasing more than three more hostages on this coming Saturday:

Senior Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri spoke to Al Jazeera on Wednesday evening and stated that Hamas is "committed" to implementing the previously agreed schedule of the hostage deal and that they will not release "all" Israeli hostages on Saturday.

Abu Zuhri's comments likely came as part of a larger statement to Al Jazeera regarding Hamas's views towards the potential breakdown of the ceasefire agreement.

The leader of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) issued yet another warning to Hamas if they don’t release them all:

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that if Hamas does not release the Israeli hostages by Saturday, all hell will break loose.

The report noted again what US President Donald Trump said previously:

This referenced US President Donald Trump when he said, "If all the Gaza hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12 p.m., I would say cancel the ceasefire. Let all hell break loose; Israel can override it," on Tuesday.

"But as far as I'm concerned... I would say cancel it, and all bets are off," he added. "All of them, not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two," Trump added.

Hamas has backed off delaying the original terms and said they would only release three hostages:

According to the original terms of Phase I of the hostage release and ceasefire agreement, three hostages were scheduled to be released this coming Saturday.

Given Abu Zuhri's statement that Hamas remains "committed" to the original hostage release schedule, it is likely that they intend to follow through with releasing three Israeli hostages.

An Israeli, who was against the current ceasefire, made it clear that Israel can’t back down now and only settle for just three more hostages instead of all of them:

Itamar Ben-Gvir, former national security minister, stated on his X/Twitter that "the Israeli government is on its way to another historic missed opportunity."

"After receiving backing from President Trump to bring hell upon Gaza if Hamas does not release all the hostages, the government intends to settle for the release of only three hostages under a reckless deal that includes the release of hundreds of terrorist murderers from prison while continuing to supply fuel and aid to the Strip." Ben-Gvir continued.

"A reckless deal; a frightened government," Ben-Gvir's response concluded.

Israel Backs Down

What Ben-Gvir notes is looking like it is happening:

While Netanyahu did not specify whether Hamas had to release all remaining hostages, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff warned Wednesday that there would be “a big problem” if all of them weren’t released by Trump’s deadline.

“Hamas is a terrorist organization. They should not be allowed to be part of the government in Gaza. This is an unhealthy situation; they need to go,” Witkoff told reporters.

“The president said all that we all need to know, which is Saturday, 12 o’clock he expects there to be something different occurring, and if it’s not there’s going to be a big problem,” he said.

Now there are signals that Israel may continue the current deal if Hamas just releases the three hostages already scheduled as we see in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Israel sends a message to Hamas through mediators Egypt and Qatar that the hostage release-ceasefire deal will continue if the terror group releases three more hostages on Saturday, Axios reports, citing a senior Israeli official.

Yesterday, a series of conflicting statements by officials and by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas must release “our hostages,” “9 hostages,” and “all of them” for the ceasefire to continue.

Such mixed signals are concerning to everyone, but especially to the US where the administration continues to be clear on the release of all of the remaining living hostages. And now Hamas has softened their stance as mentioned earlier:

Earlier this week, Hamas said it was freezing hostage releases until further notice over alleged Israeli violations of the deal.

Yesterday it appeared we were on the fast track to an explosive encounter and we could still be going down that road, but now both sides are tamping down the rhetoric with Israel leading the way. But we’ve been down this road with anonymous sources not being correct. And in only 24 hours the narrative shifted. Again. So here we are on Wednesday with two days until what we considered a high noon at the OK Corral show down between Hamas and Israel mere hours before. I tend to agree with Ben-Gvir and that this is a huge opportunity to take out Hamas once and for all. They have the full backing of the United States, something they haven’t had since the war started and Hamas giving them the reason to attack. Should I equivocate more in my assessments? Maybe, but while I still see a full regional conflict just ahead, I just might not know exactly how it will play out. Who knows what the next 24 to 48 hours will bring? Maybe Israel has a secret agenda in place and will unleash it once the next three hostages are safely returned. Or maybe Hamas has a similar secret plan. One thing we do know is that we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem now more than ever.