Live: Israel delays release of 602 Palestinian prisoners

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Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

Our blog will soon be closing for the day. Here are some of today's main developments:

• Hamas has condemned Israel for failing to release the seventh batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of the agreed exchange deal, calling it a "blatant violation" of the truce.

• The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced overnight into Sunday that it would postpone the release of Palestinian prisoners, using unsubstantiated claims of Hamas violating the ceasefire agreement as justification.

• Israeli settlers, backed by occupation forces, stormed the town of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank on Saturday evening, looting hundreds of livestock in yet another act of state-backed aggression against Palestinians.

• Nearly 600,000 children under the age of 10 are expected to receive polio vaccinations in the latest campaign in Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), announced on X.

• Israeli forces have raided the homes of Palestinians prisoners set to be released within hours in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian prisoners’ media office has said.

• China has called for the “complete and effective execution” of the ceasefire agreement and reaffirmed its support for a two-state solution.

• Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares have condemned US President Donald Trump’s reported plan to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza, reaffirming their countries’ opposition to any displacement.

• Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, will travel to Lebanon to attend the funeral of long-time Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, Iranian media reported.

• German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stressed the urgency of advancing the next stage of the ceasefire agreement, warning that recent developments highlight the need for immediate action.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced overnight into Sunday that it would postpone the release of Palestinian prisoners, using unsubstantiated claims of Hamas violating the ceasefire agreement as justification.

Accusing Hamas of so-called “humiliating ceremonies” and the “cynical use of hostages for propaganda,” Netanyahu’s office declared that the scheduled release of Palestinian detainees on Saturday would be delayed until Israel secures the next batch of hostages.

Israeli settlers, backed by occupation forces, stormed the town of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank on Saturday evening, looting hundreds of livestock in yet another act of state-backed aggression against Palestinians.

According to Wafa, settlers, shielded by Israeli soldiers, stole around 800 sheep, three horses, two donkeys, and water tanks belonging to Palestinian residents Nayef Manasra and Abdul Halim Awada.

Later, Israeli forces raided the town, broke into the home of Issa Khader Yassin, and confiscated footage from his home’s security cameras.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares have condemned US President Donald Trump’s reported plan to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza, reaffirming their countries’ opposition to any displacement.

Speaking on Saturday at the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Johannesburg, Eide warned of alarming signs suggesting plans to remove Palestinians from their land, calling such measures a blatant violation of international law.

He emphasised the urgent need to help Palestinians rebuild their homeland and secure their right to an independent state after Israel’s relentless destruction of Gaza, both physically and politically.

Albares echoed this stance, stating unequivocally that Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people and that Spain firmly supports their right to remain.

He added that his country is providing humanitarian aid and will take part in reconstruction efforts to help Palestinians rebuild their lives after Israel’s devastating assault.

In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, and the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, families braved the freezing cold for hours, desperately waiting for the release of Palestinian prisoners—only to be met with yet another delay.

Al-Jazaeera reported that Um Diya al-Agha, whose son has been imprisoned for 33 years, had attended all six previous releases, clinging to the hope of seeing him walk free.

“Yesterday, I received news that he would be released, but I still can’t believe that my son will be free after 33 years,” she said at the European Hospital, where prisoners were supposed to undergo medical checkups.

“If my heart were made of iron, it would have melted and shattered. Every day, I have been waiting for this moment,” said the 80-year-old, reflecting the agony of countless Palestinian families suffering under Israel’s unjust imprisonment system.

The Israel Hayom website reported that the family of Israeli captive Shiri Bibas, whose body was handed over to Israel today, has requested that no representatives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government attend her funeral.

Hamas has said that the captives were killed by Israeli strikes.

Hamas has condemned Israel for failing to release the seventh batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of the agreed exchange deal, calling it a "blatant violation" of the truce.

“The [Israeli] occupation’s failure to comply with the release of the seventh batch of prisoners in the exchange deal at the agreed-upon time constitutes a blatant violation of the agreement,” Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said in a statement.

He accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of engaging in "procrastination and stalling tactics" to undermine the agreement.

Palestinian families are suing the Canadian government after a temporary scheme that grants visas to Palestinians from Gaza with family ties to the country has been beset by delays.

The scheme has come under fire for its complexity and ineffectiveness in issuing visas.

Marku and Lee, an immigration and refugee law firm in Toronto, filed a case on 6 February on behalf of 53 Palestinian families who are currently in the Gaza Strip to ask the Federal Court of Canada to process the applications without delay.

The firm says half their clients are children, the youngest of whom is seven months old. They expressed concern that the Canadian government had let the applications “sit in limbo” while conditions in Gaza had progressively worsened and the enclave had become uninhabitable since the scheme was launched more than a year ago.

They said their clients’ Canadian family members had petitioned on behalf of their relatives within a month of the application, and their applications had not yet proceeded to the next stage. The Canadian families petitioning on behalf of their relatives remain concerned for their family members’ lives.

Read more: Palestinian families from Gaza take Canadian government to court

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that Tel Aviv has deliberately delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners from the seventh batch of the first phase of the exchange deal. Israel claims this move is retaliation for Hamas allegedly sending a Palestinian body instead of that of Shiri Bibas.

The Israel ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, has called for an emergency UN Security Council session, claiming new “findings” prove Hamas was responsible for the deaths of Shiri Bibas and her children, Kfir and Ariel.

“Hamas murdered Shiri, four-year-old Ariel, and nine-month-old Kfir with their bare hands and abused their bodies as early as November 2023,” Danon posted on X.

However, Hamas has consistently stated that an Israeli air strike killed the Bibas family in the early days of the war.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stressed the urgency of advancing the next stage of the ceasefire agreement, warning that recent developments highlight the need for immediate action.

She emphasised that the lives of those still held captive, including German citizens, remain at stake, calling for all possible efforts to secure their release.

In 2011, the full force of Nato air power was mobilised with a UN resolution to protect civilians in Libya after former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s army fired on peaceful protesters, killing dozens of people. 

That military action was authorised with reference to the norm of “responsibility to protect”, which states that the international community should step in when civilians’ lives are threatened. 

In Gaza, where more than two million people have been deliberately starved amid relentless Israeli bombardment since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, we have seen a campaign of genocide replete with sexual violence, mass graves, detainees paraded in their underwear, the bombing of schools and hospitals and mass displacement.

We have also seen the last nail in the coffin of the idea of humanitarian intervention and responsibility to protect.

Given the unbelievable atrocities in Gaza, we can ask: was the notion of responsibility to protect always a flimsy liberal veil over the US-led military imperial project? 

Read more: How Palestinian lives are reduced to a series of grotesque calculations

Head of Hamas in the West Bank Zaher Jabarin told Al Jazeera that the resistance remains strong and will compel Israel to accept its demands. Here is what he said:

• We are working with mediators in Qatar and Egypt to resolve outstanding issues.
• The resistance has not lost its cards with the occupation and is able to force it to agree.
• Netanyahu's interest is in continuing the war because the alternative is for him to go to court.
• We informed the mediators and the world that we are ready for the second phase of the agreement.
• We suggested from the beginning that the exchange be in one go, but Netanyahu is the one who is stalling.
• We want to achieve the goals of our people, not the goals of Hamas.
• There is an agreement that we have been negotiating for 15 months, the essence of which is to stop the war and withdraw from the Strip.
• If the enemy wants to complete the exchange all at once, we are ready.
• Until the last moments, the enemy insists on abusing our prisoners before releasing them.
• The resistance treats the enemy's prisoners with an unprecedented level of humanity, while the enemy responds with brutality.
• We will hunt down the fascists who tortured our prisoners and killed dozens of them.
• We tell the enemy that our people will continue the resistance in the West Bank and elsewhere.
• The West Bank has a resistance reserve capable of defeating the occupation, despite the extent of its crimes.

China has called for the “complete and effective execution” of the ceasefire agreement and reaffirmed its support for a two-state solution.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in a call with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, denounced the forced displacement of Palestinians and insisted the ceasefire must be fully implemented.

“Gaza is an integral part of Palestinian territory, and its future should be determined by the will of the Palestinian people,” Wang stated.