Updates: Israel delays release of Palestinians; Hamas frees 6 captives

You can read our story on how the Israeli army killed two Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, here.

You can also read about the release of six Israeli captives in Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal, here.

A story on Hamas accusing Israel of playing “dirty games” to sabotage the Gaza truce deal can be found here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s main events:

• Hamas has released six Israeli captives from Gaza and accused Israel of a “blatant violation” of the Gaza ceasefire deal after a delay in the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners.
• Israeli forces killed two Palestinian children, aged 12 and 13, in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin and Hebron.
• Zaher Jabarin, head of Hamas in the occupied West Bank, told Al Jazeera he believes Netanyahu’s interest lies in continuing the war because the alternative is for him to go to court.
• The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports Israeli settler attacks in the towns of Deir Dibwan and Jaba in the occupied West Bank.
• Hamas politburo member Basem Naim has said the group is “willing immediately to leave the governing position in the Gaza Strip and to allow any Palestinian unity government or a technocratic government or any alternative which is decided by Palestinians within the Palestinian consensus”.

In the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, families continue to wait for their loved ones to be released from Israeli custody in exchange for the six Israelis taken back home.

“Waiting is very difficult,” Shireen al-Hamamreh, whose brother was due for release, said in Ramallah.

“We are patient and we will remain stronger than the occupier, God willing.”

Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sabotaging the Gaza ceasefire agreement, saying the Israeli government is not engaging in negotiations for the second phase of the deal due to end on March 1.

“We believe that, again, these are dirty games from the right-wing government to sabotage and undermine the deal and to send a message of willingness to go back to war,” Basem Naim, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, told Al Jazeera.

The Palestinian group that governs Gaza remains committed to the agreement, and has abided by its obligations under the deal, he said.

Read more of this story here.

Israel struck the Lebanon-Syria border to stop Hezbollah from smuggling weapons, a day before a mass funeral for the Lebanese group’s slain leader.

Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israel nearly five months ago in a huge strike on south Beirut at the start of an all-out war that ended in late November.

A military statement said that Israeli forces “conducted a strike on border crossings on the Syria-Lebanon border through which the Hezbollah terrorist organisation has attempted to smuggle weapons into Lebanon”.

“These smuggling attempts are a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the statement said, referring to the November truce that ended more than a year of hostilities, including two months of war.

The Israeli army may deploy tanks to the northern occupied West Bank for the first time in 23 years, an Israeli media outlet reports.

According to Channel 14, citing anonymous sources, the political leadership is “pressuring for the inclusion of tanks in the ongoing military operation in the northern West Bank”.

The tanks “could soon participate in the military operation”, the sources indicated.

The move comes during an escalating Israeli attack across several northern West Bank governorates, particularly targeting Palestinian refugee camps for the 34th day in a row.

With 45 years behind bars, the world’s longest-serving prisoner, Nael Barghouthi, is expected to be one of the 620 Palestinians released in the coming hours. He is set to be exiled.

In 2011, Nael was released in a soldier-prisoner swap deal, only to be re-arrested less than three years later. His wife, Eman, only spent 32 months with him before he got re-arrested.

She shares her story in the video below:

These are the main developments:

• Hamas accuses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “procrastination and stalling tactics” after Israel delayed the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners as agreed.
• Zaher Jabarin, head of Hamas in the occupied West Bank, told Al Jazeera he believes Netanyahu’s interest lies in continuing the war because the alternative is for him to go to court.
• The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports Israeli settler attacks in the towns of Deir Dibwan and Jaba in the occupied West Bank.
• China has called for a “complete and effective execution of the ceasefire agreement”, and a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.
• Hamas politburo member Basem Naim has said the group is “willing immediately to leave the governing position in the Gaza Strip and to allow any Palestinian unity government or a technocratic government or any alternative which is decided by Palestinians within the Palestinian consensus”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Hamas will be “destroyed” if it does not release all remaining abductees held in Gaza.

“Hamas’ treatment of hostages, including its brutal murder of the Bibas family, further illustrates their savagery and is yet another reason why we are saying these terrorists must release all of the hostages immediately or be destroyed,” Rubio wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump has ruffled many feathers since he announced his proposal to “take over” Gaza.

According to him, more than 2 million Palestinians should leave “to somewhere nice and safe” like Jordan or Egypt – while he builds a new “Riviera on the Mediterranean in Gaza”.

This idea has angered the international community, and the Arab world has downright rejected it. A meeting on Friday of Gulf nations in Riyadh, joined by Egypt and Jordan, ended with no concrete counterproposals.

Now, there will be a meeting in Cairo in the coming weeks. Al Jazeera’s Inside Story looks at whether they will be able to make Trump change his mind.

Annalena Baerbock says recent events in Gaza and Israel over the past few days serve a “reminder” of the urgent need to push forward towards phase two of the Gaza ceasefire.

“The lives of the remaining hostages are at stake – some of them are still Germans,” she said in a post on X.

The Israeli decision to delay the release of more than 600 Palestinian detainees from Israeli jails has left their families facing high levels of frustration and anxiety.

Those families have been waiting since the early hours of this morning to be reunited again with their loved ones who have been absent for months during Israeli military operations in Gaza.

The Israeli decision has been seen as a way to add psychological weight to those families and could be seen as a sign the deal is now tested between Hamas and Israel.

Families believe the Israeli government may not allow the return of Palestinian detainees today, but many believe that mediators will be able to contain the situation and bridge the gap between Hamas and Israel.

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis as in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, families sought shelter from the bitter cold after waiting in vain for hours for the prisoners to arrive.

Um Diya al-Agha, whose son has spent 33 years in prison, said she had come to each of the six previous prisoner releases in the hope of finding him.

“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 freed prisoners had been expected to have a medical checkup.

“If my heart were made of iron, it would have melted and shattered. Every day, I have been waiting for this moment,” the 80-year-old said.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

There has been no real explanation given by Israel for the delay. What we do know is the release of Palestinian prisoners will depend on when the meeting, the security consultations convened by the Israeli prime minister, will end.

Of course, that also means that more than 600 Palestinian families are waiting in the cold in Ramallah, in the Gaza Strip, but also in Cairo, where more than 100 Palestinians will be exiled.

The consultations will not just focus on today, on the exchange of prisoners and detainees and captives, but also on what happens next.

We’re already beginning to hear a little bit about what is being discussed, namely, will Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor? Will it seek an extension of phase one of the ceasefire agreement, rather than entering into phase two?