Hamas says it will only release American-Israeli hostage if ceasefire deal is implemented

CAIRO (AP) — Hamas said Saturday it will only release an American-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel implements their ceasefire agreement, calling it an “exceptional deal” aimed at getting the truce back on track.

Israeli airstrikes meanwhile killed nine people in the Gaza Strip who the military identified as militants, allegations denied by a U.K.-based aid group that said eight of its workers were killed.

A senior Hamas official said long-delayed talks over the ceasefire's second phase would need to begin the day of the release and last no longer than 50 days. Israel also would need to stop barring the entry of humanitarian aid and withdraw from a strategic corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt. Israel has said it won't pull out from the corridor, citing the need to combat weapons smuggling.

Hamas would also demand the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.

Edan Alexander, 21, who grew up in New Jersey, was abducted from his military base during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. He is the last living U.S. citizen held in Gaza. Hamas still has 59 hostages, 35 believed to be dead.

Speaking at a protest camp set up last week outside Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages said Netanyahu was “violating the agreement he signed and abandoning the hostages in Gaza.”

“You want to sacrifice our children for the pleasures of power,” said Itzik Horn, father of hostage Eitan and freed hostage Iair.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Saturday told negotiators to prepare for the continuation of talks regarding the release of hostages, his office said.

Two Israeli airstrikes in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border killed at least nine people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The Palestinian Journalists’ Protection Center, a local watchdog, said the dead included three Palestinian journalists who were documenting aid distribution. Local health official Fares Awad identified one as Mahmoud Islim, who was operating a drone.

The Israeli military said it struck two people operating a drone that it said posed a threat to soldiers in the area. It said it launched another strike at a group of people who came to collect the drone equipment, identifying all those targeted as militants.

The army later released the names of six people it said were militants killed in the strikes, including one accused of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack and another who it said had been released as part of the ceasefire. The military said two others, including Islim, were militants posing as journalists.

The UK-based Al Khair Foundation said that eight of its workers were killed in the strikes. It denied the Israeli military’s allegations that those killed were militants or had connections to Hamas.

Hamas in a statement called the attack a “serious escalation” showing Israel’s attempts to “sabotage any opportunity” to implement the ceasefire agreement.

Also Saturday, Israel's military said it removed a platoon of soldiers from Gaza who were seen in a video on social media opening fire during a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Purim. The video shows soldiers shooting, apparently randomly, while another performs the customary reading of the Book of Esther. The military said the soldiers “will face disciplinary measures.”

No major fighting has occurred in Gaza since the ceasefire took hold on Jan. 19, but Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military said had entered unauthorized areas, engaged in militant activities or otherwise violated the truce.

The United States said it presented on Wednesday a proposal to extend the ceasefire a few weeks as the sides negotiate a permanent truce. It said Hamas was claiming flexibility in public while privately making “entirely impractical” demands.

Talks continued in Egypt, which along with Qatar has served as mediators with Hamas in the indirect talks with Israel.

Israel and Hamas were to begin negotiations on the ceasefire's second phase in early February, but only preparatory talks have been held. In Phase Two, Hamas would release all remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting truce.

The first phase saw the release of 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone along Gaza’s border and allowed a surge of humanitarian aid.

After the first phase ended early this month, Israel said it had agreed to a new U.S. proposal in which Hamas would release half the remaining hostages in return for a vague commitment to negotiate a lasting ceasefire. Hamas rejected that offer.

Netanyahu's office said in a statement that he held in-depth discussions with the negotiating team and security officials on Saturday evening. Afterward, he told the negotiating team to prepare for continued talks as per the mediator's response to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff's proposal, the statement said.

For two weeks, Israel has barred the delivery of food, fuel and other supplies to Gaza's roughly 2 million Palestinians, and cut electricity to the territory a week ago, to pressure Hamas to accept the new proposal.

The southern city of Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, said it could no longer provide fuel needed to pump water from dozens of wells.

Ahmed al-Sufi, head of the municipality, said fuel shortages caused by the Israeli siege have forced it to “suspend essential services, threatening the lives of thousands.”

The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced most of the population and left nearly everyone dependent on international aid.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. Most have been released in deals, while Israel rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.

Israel's military offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo//Oded Balilty)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo//Oded Balilty)

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo//Oded Balilty)

A man serves a juice as Palestinians prepare for Iftar, the fast-breaking meal during Ramadan in a street of the war-devastated Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Traditional sweets are served at the tables as residents prepare for Iftar, the fast-breaking meal, during Ramadan in the war-devastated Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Surrounded by destroyed homes and buildings, Palestinians gather for iftar, the fast-breaking meal during Ramadan in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Surrounded by destroyed homes and buildings, Palestinians gather for iftar, the fast-breaking meal during Ramadan in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of their relatives killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

People take part in a pro-Palestine march in central London, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

Displaced Palestinians burn waste in central Gaza Strip on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip on Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

NEW YORK (AP) — The federal government and a Columbia University student threatened with deportation for his role in campus protests against Israel have been sparring in court over the Trump administration’s move to ship him halfway across the country to an immigration lockup in Louisiana.

The government says he could not be detained at an immigration facility near where he was originally arrested in part because of a bedbug infestation, so they sent him to Louisiana. The student, Mahmoud Khalil, says there was no such discussion of bedbugs and he feared he was being immediately deported.

Khalil said in a declaration filed in Manhattan federal court Monday that while he was held overnight at a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, "I did not hear anyone mention bedbugs.”

In court papers over the weekend, lawyers for the Justice Department also blamed his move on overcrowded facilities in the Northeast.

Khalil made the statement about bedbugs in an exhibit attached to court papers in which his lawyers asked that he be freed on bail while the courts decide whether his arrest violated the First Amendment.

The lawyers have also asked a judge to widen the effect of any order to stop the U.S. government from “arresting, detaining, and removing noncitizens who engage in constitutionally protected expressive activity in the United States in support of Palestinian rights or critical of Israel.”

In his declaration, Khalil said he was put in a van when he was taken away from the Elizabeth facility and he asked if he was being returned to FBI headquarters in Manhattan, where he was taken immediately after his arrest.

“I was told, ‘no, we are going to JFK Airport.’ I was afraid they were trying to deport me,” he recalled.

Of his time spent at the Elizabeth facility, he wrote: “I was in a waiting room with about ten other people. We slept on the ground. Even though it was cold inside the room, there were no beds, mattresses, or blankets.”

In the weekend court papers, lawyers for the Justice Department gave a detailed description of Khalil's March 8 arrest and his transport from Manhattan to Elizabeth and then to Kennedy International Airport in New York the next day for his transfer to Louisiana, where he has been held since.

“Khalil could not be housed at Elizabeth Detention Facility long-term due to a bedbug issue, so he remained there until his flight to Louisiana,” the lawyers wrote. They said he was at the facility from 2:20 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. on March 9.

The lawyers have asked that legal issues be addressed by federal judges in New Jersey or Louisiana rather than New York. A Manhattan federal judge has not yet ruled on the request.

Khalil's lawyers, who oppose transferring the case, wrote in a submission Monday that the transfer to Louisiana was “predetermined and carried out for improper motives” rather than because of a bedbug infestation.

Despite the bedbug claim, the Elizabeth Detention accepted at least four individuals for detention from March 6 through last Thursday and Khalil himself saw men being processed for detention while he was there, they wrote.

FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)