JERUSALEM

Israel is set to receive on Friday the names of three hostages scheduled to be released by Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday.  

Hamas said early Thursday that it will release Israeli captives as planned after mediators Egypt and Qatar pledged to remove obstacles to the implementation of a Gaza ceasefire deal.  

Netanyahu’s office, however, denied any understanding with Hamas to release the hostages as planned.  

But the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, citing unnamed government sources, confirmed that there are ongoing understandings with Hamas regarding the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.  

According to KAN, while Netanyahu held security talks with top officials on Thursday, Israel still expects to receive on Friday a list of three captives set for release by Hamas on Saturday.  

On Tuesday, Netanyahu threatened to end the Gaza ceasefire deal if Hamas failed to free Israeli captives by Saturday noon.  

The threat came one day after Hamas said that it would delay the next hostage release in response to Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.  

“If Israel does not adhere to the terms of the agreement, the prisoner exchange process will not take place,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanoua told Anadolu.  

“Hamas is committed to what has been reached, but will not accept any Israeli violations that may disrupt the exchange process,” he said. 

Local Palestinian authorities have listed a series of Israeli violations of the deal, including the shooting of civilians and denying access to relief materials, including tents and caravans for displaced civilians in Gaza.  

Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli hostages are to be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.  

Sixteen Israelis and five Thai workers have so far been released by Hamas in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails under the agreement.  

The ceasefire deal has been in place in Gaza since Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed more than 48,200 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.  

Israel has turned Gaza into the world’s largest open-air prison, maintaining an 18-year blockade and forcing nearly two million of its 2.3 million residents into displacement amid dire shortages of food, water, and medicine due to deliberate restrictions.