While Hamas announced a delay in the next round of prisoner exchanges— prompting accusations that it violated the ceasefire—Israel has been in breach of the agreement since the first hours of its implementation on January 19. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear from the outset that he viewed the deal as merely a temporary pause.
Just one day before the ceasefire was set to take effect, Netanyahu publicly declared, “President [Donald] Trump and President [Joe] Biden have given full backing to Israel’s right to return to combat,” emphasizing that the truce would not be permanent.
The ceasefire was scheduled to begin at 8:30 AM local time on January 19. Yet, in the final 30 minutes before its implementation, Israeli officials threatened to scrap the deal, citing Hamas’s delay in submitting a list of three Israeli captives set to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners later that day. The agreement contained no clause allowing Israel to postpone the truce on these grounds.
At the ceasefire deadline that morning, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced that military operations would continue until Hamas provided the required list of captives. In the interim, Palestinians briefly took to the streets, celebrating what they believed to be the official end of the war. The moment was short-lived. Within 15 minutes, Israeli drones returned to the skies, followed by airstrikes and gunfire from Israeli forces, killing at least 19 Palestinians.