Hamas has postponed the release of a new group of Israeli hostages

The Palestinian radical movement Hamas has decided to postpone the release of Israeli hostages scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, because of Israel's failure to comply with the terms of the ceasefire agreement. Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the organization's military wing, said on February 10.

"Over the past three weeks, the Hamas leadership has observed the enemy's violations and its failure to fulfill the terms of the agreement, including the delay in the return of refugees to northern Gaza, their shelling and shooting in different areas of the Strip. <...> Based on this, the release of the Israeli hostages, which was scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, 2025, will be postponed," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

He added that the release of the hostages has been postponed until "further notice."

"Hamas always takes into account the requests of the Russian side"

Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the political bureau of the Palestinian movement, on the fate of Russian citizens in captivity in Gaza, Moscow's role in the Middle East and Israel's violations of the deal.

Earlier on February 8, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that Hamas had released and handed over three hostages to Israel. The three freed men were handed over by the Red Cross to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.

Russian Alexander Trufanov still remains among the movement's hostages. Earlier, on February 4, Hamas deputy politburo chief Musa Abu Marzouk told Izvestia that Trufanov is fine and will be released soon.

On January 19, the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. During this phase of the deal, which will last 42 days, 33 Israeli hostages and about 1.9 thousand Palestinians are to be released. On the same day, the movement released three hostages in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, and on January 26, four military girls were handed over to the Red Cross. They were subsequently flown back to their homeland.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.