Middle East crisis: Hamas official calls Trump’s latest Gaza remarks ‘absurd’ after delaying hostage releases – as it happened

Hamas official says Trump’s latest Gaza remarks ‘absurd’
A senior Hamas official has described Donald Trump’s latest remarks about Gaza as “absurd”, after the US president said his plan to “take over” the Palestinian territory would not include a right of return for the more than 2 million Palestinians who live there.

Trump’s comments “reflect a deep ignorance of Palestine and the region”, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said.

In comments released by Hamas, he said Trump’s approach toward the Palestinian cause will fail.

Hamas said it is delaying the release of Israeli hostages indefinitely over “violations” of the ceasefire deal. Although a Hamas spokesperson cited past Israeli violations for halting the exchanges, the decision comes against a backdrop of US and Israeli leaders taking increasingly hardline positions about the long-term future of the strip.

Donald Trump said his plan to “take over Gaza” would not include a right of return for the more than 2 million Palestinians that he has said have “no alternative” but to leave because of the destruction left by Israel’s military campaign. Trump continued to endorse a plan for the Palestinians to be resettled in Egypt and Jordan, a plan that both countries have rejected. The remarks are the latest effective endorsement of ethnic cleansing by the US president.

Hamas’s announcement prompted Israel’s defence minister to put the country’s military on alert with orders to prepare for “any scenario in Gaza”. Israel’s security cabinet has moved forward a meeting to discuss negotiations on second phase, which had been set for Tuesday evening. The army has cancelled all leave for soldiers in the Gaza division, the Kan news outlet reported, in a sign that Israeli authorities are preparing for the resumption of war.

Mediators fear a breakdown of the three-week-old ceasefire and have postponed talks until they receive a clear indication of Washington’s intent to continue with the phased deal, according to reports. Qatar had reportedly warned Israeli officials at the weekend that even the first stage of the ceasefire deal was being put in jeopardy by provocative statements from Benjamin Netanyahu and by his government’s approach to talks on a second stage.

Israeli police raided a leading Palestinian-owned bookshop in Jerusalem and detained two of its owners, accusing them of selling books that supported terrorism, including a children’s colouring book entitled From the Jordan to the Sea.

Karim Khan, the international criminal court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor, is the person to be hit with economic and travel sanctions authorised by Trump that target the court over investigations of US citizens or US allies, the White House has confirmed. The US president signed an executive order last week authorising aggressive economic sanctions against the ICC, accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and Israel.

A former UK supreme court judge described Israel’s assault on Gaza as “grossly disproportionate” and said there was “at least an arguable case” that it was genocidal. Lord Sumption, who served on the UK’s highest court from 2012 to 2018, was one of the highest profile signatories of a letter last year warning that the UK government was breaching international law by arming Israel.