Middle East: Hamas postpones hostage releases

Donald Trump has threatened to pause aid to US allies Jordan and Egypt if they don't take Palestinian refugees being relocated from Gaza.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, the US president said he could "conceivably" withhold aid from the two Arab states if they don't accept resettled Palestinians from Gaza. 

His comments come after Cairo earlier on Monday rejected "any compromise" that would infringe on Palestinians' rights. The Foreign Ministry statement was released after Egypt's top diplomat met with his US counterpart in Washington. Egypt is among the top recipients of US foreign aid.

Trump's threats also come as Jordan's King Abdullah II is scheduled to visit Washington on Tuesday.

The king has long made clear that the forced relocation of the estimated 2 million Palestinians in Gaza was "a red line" not to be crossed under any circumstances.

The visit by King Abdullah II will be the first official trip by an Arab leader to the United States since Trump was inaugurated for a second term.

Trump's 90-day USAID funding freeze has already hit Jordan hard. The country is one of the top recipients of humanitarian assistance from the US aid agency. 

The US is also the biggest provider of foreign aid to Jordan, which is struggling with a weak economy and high unemployment. 

US President Donald Trump said that if all the hostages held in Gaza aren't returned by midday Saturday, the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas should be cancelled.

Trump said it was ultimately up to Israel. But he warned that "all hell is going to break out" if the remaining hostages aren't released, adding that he feared many were dead.

Hamas was due to release further hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

But the Palestinian militant group announced on Monday that it would pause the hostage release until further notice. It accused Israel of violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli military said it would increase readiness and "significantly reinforce" areas around the Gaza Strip after Hamas said it was indefinitely delaying the release of Israeli hostages, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire.

"The reinforcement of forces will strengthen the defense in the area and enhance the readiness for various scenarios in the region," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on X.

The military also said it would postpone leave for combat soldiers and operational units within the southern command.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel-Atty, in his first meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, reiterated his country's "complete rejection" of the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Egypt looks forward to coordinate with the US administration to work to achieve the desired just peace in the Middle East in a way that responds to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, most notably their right to establish their independent state on all their national soil," the statement read.

During the meeting with Rubio, Abdel-Atty also stressed the need to accelerate the reconstruction of Gaza.

The meeting comes shortly after controversial remarks by US President Donald Trump, whose plan to resettle Gaza residents would not give them the right to return to the territory.

Trump's call for Egypt and Jordan to be host countries for the Palestinians has been rebuffed by both states.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has abolished a system of payments to the families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed by Israeli forces.

The payments will be transferred to a government body affiliated with the president's office, with a new disbursement mechanism, the details of which have not yet been announced. It was initially unclear how this would affect the size of the payments.

The system has long been a source of friction with the United States, and its elimination has been a key demand of successive US administrations on the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas had previously defended the payments, speaking of a "social responsibility" to the families and calling the prisoners "victims of the Israeli occupation."

But the system has been dubbed "pay for slay" by critics who say it rewards the families of militants who carry out attacks against Israel, although the label is rejected by Palestinians.

US President Donald Trump's proposal for US "ownership" of Gaza revived an idea he and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had previously touted. 

It's a reminder that for Trump and his family, the Middle East is as much a business interest as anything else.

The region has become a growing focus for The Trump Organization, the real estate and hospitality conglomerate currently run by Trump's sons Eric and Donald Junior.

In the last few years, it has struck several agreements with Saudi Arabian real estate company Dar Global, the international arm of Saudi Arabia's Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company.

Read more: Gaza: The Trump family's Middle East business interests

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that the postponement of hostage releases by Hamas amounts to a "complete violation" of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

"Hamas' announcement to stop releasing Israeli hostages is a complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages. I have instructed the IDF (military) to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza," Katz said in a statement.

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.

Palestinian militant group Hamas announced that it was postponing until further notice the next release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, claiming that Israel had failed to abide by the terms of their ceasefire agreement.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, claimed that since the ceasefire took effect on January 19, Israel has delayed the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, targeted Gazans with military shelling and gunfire, and prevented aid from entering the territory.

He added that Hamas would not release any more hostages until Israel "complies and compensates for the past weeks."

More hostages were due to be released Saturday in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners, but the Hamas spokesman said no more hostages would be released until further notice.

There have been five hostage-prisoner exchanges between Israel and Hamas in the first phase of the current cease-fire. Three hostages were released last Saturday.

US President Donald Trump said Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would not have the right to return under his much-criticized plan for US "ownership" of the territory.

Asked if Palestinians would be allowed to return to the Gaza Strip, Trump told Fox News: "No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing." 

He said his goal was to create a "permanent place" for the Palestinians. "We will build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people," he added in the interview.

These communities will be built "a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is," Trump said.

Referring to the war-torn Gaza Strip, he said: "In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future."

Legal experts say expelling Palestinians from Gaza would violate international law, while the United Nations has warned of "ethnic cleansing."