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Hamas and President Trump have threatened to upend the cease-fire. Analysts say those comments could prove hollow, but the deal still may not last beyond early March.
Feb. 11, 2025Updated 6:19 a.m. ET
Despite competing overnight threats from Hamas and President Trump to derail the truce in Gaza, officials and analysts in the region remained hopeful on Tuesday morning that the arrangement would survive beyond the weekend — though maybe not much longer.
The deal appeared close to collapse when Hamas said it would delay the next release of Israeli hostages. Mr. Trump fired back, pledging “all hell” in retaliation. But within hours, Hamas seemed to soften its stance. And even Mr. Trump’s statement had a caveat that suggested he might not follow through with his threat.
Still, the standoff highlighted the deal’s inherent fragility and the decreasing likelihood that it would last much longer than early March, when the cease-fire is set to elapse unless Hamas and Israel can negotiate an extension.
All the major players have made it harder for that to happen.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has delayed the negotiations, wary of an extension that would allow Hamas to remain the dominant military force in Gaza. Hamas, though nominally willing to share administrative control with other Palestinian factions, has given no sign that it will disarm.
And Mr. Trump’s maximalist pronouncements — including his threats to expel Gaza’s two million residents — have angered Hamas and amplified the sense of uncertainty that surrounds the negotiations.
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