Committed To Freeing Gaza Hostages According To Specified Time: Hamas

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Thursday said it was committed to carrying out the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza under a timeline set out in a ceasefire deal for the territory.

"Hamas confirms continuation in implementing the agreement in accordance with what was signed, including the exchange of prisoners (Israeli hostages) according to the specified timetable," the Islamist movement said in a statement. 

It added that talks being held this week in Cairo aimed at overcoming an impasse in implementing the truce deal had been "positive".

A fragile truce in Gaza, which came into effect on January 19, has come under increasing strain. 

Hamas announced on Monday it would indefinitely postpone the next hostage-prisoner exchange expected on Saturday. The group said it was delaying the release of hostages "until further notice" because of a series of violations of the ceasefire deal by Israel.

Following the announcement, United States President Donald Trump said "all hell" would break loose and he would call for the deal's cancellation if the hostages weren't released on Saturday.

Israel has vowed to restart the war in Gaza, already devastated by 15 months of fighting, if the hostage release does not go ahead as planned.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt have been pushing to salvage the ceasefire agreement with Hamas announcing on Wednesday that its chief negotiator was engaged in talks in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

In the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, 33 Israeli hostages were to be released in exchange for around 1,900 mostly Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.

On Saturday three Israeli hostages and 183 Palestinian prisoners were freed in the fifth hostage-prisoner exchange.

With their return, 73 out of 251 hostages taken during Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.  

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)