Israel is making preparations to resume the war in Gaza after giving Hamas an ultimatum to hand over the remaining hostages or see the ceasefire end on Saturday.

Donald Trump warned on Monday that while the decision ultimately rests on Israel’s shoulders, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday noon ‘I would say cancel [the ceasefire]… all bets are off and let hell break out’.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed President Trump’s warnings yesterday, declaring that the ceasefire will end and the assault relaunched if the demand is not met.

He promised that Israel’s military would ‘return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated’ and said that he has ordered the IDF to ‘amass forces inside – and surrounding – the Gaza Strip.’

‘This action is being carried out at this hour and will be completed very soon,’ he said yesterday.

Israel’s Southern Command units have been placed on high alert, with the Gaza Division and 162nd Division, which operate inside Gaza and around its perimeter, in a particularly heightened state of readiness.

A number of other units are also said to be on standby for potential deployment, with additional divisions preparing for possible operations in Gaza depending on how the situation unfolds, Israeli media reports.

The alert level is also reported to have been raised for the Israeli Air Force and its Intelligence Division. 

The Israeli military has said the bolstering of troops has been ‘extensive’ and that reservists are being called up ‘in preparation for various scenarios.’

Citing a military source, Israeli news site Mako reported that there is a possibility of retaking the Netzarim corridor within a few hours should fighting restart on Saturday.

Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) said Israel would resume ‘intense fighting’ in Gaza if Hamas did not return hostages by Saturday noon. Trump said that he believed Israel should ‘let hell break out’

An explosion occurs following an Israeli air strike on a residential building in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip in July last year

Hamas fighters escort Israeli hostage Or Levy on a stage before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on February 8, 2025, as part of the fifth hostage-prisoner exchange of a fragile ceasefire

Israeli forces could expand the area by several kilometers within as little as 24 hours of the assault resuming, the source added. 

Israeli forces only pulled back from the key corridor in recent days as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The four-mile-long axis separates northern Gaza from the south. When the ceasefire began last month Israel allowed Palestinians to cross it to return to their homes, many of which have been reduced to rubble after more than a year of war.

The fragile ceasefire allowed thousands of Gazans to return home to the north of the strip after being displaced earlier in the conflict. 

There are fears that many could be displaced again and face increasingly desperate conditions if fighting does resume and aid is halted.

The IDF has kept forces inside Gaza throughout the ceasefire, and has stepped up their presence in recent days. 

‘Forces from 162nd Division, 143rd Division and 99th Division under the Southern Command have been deployed at several points in the Gaza Strip region to strengthen the defensive layer for the residents of the western Negev and the State of Israel,’ the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on Friday. 

A Hamas official earlier said that Israeli hostages could only be brought home if the ceasefire was respected, dismissing the ‘language of threats’ and saying it only ‘complicates matters’.

‘Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the (Israeli) prisoners,’ senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Hamas has said Israel has violated the ceasefire with several deadly shootings as well as by holding up some aid deliveries and impeding the return of Gazans to the strip’s north.

Israel denies holding back aid and says it has fired on people who disregarded warnings not to approach Israeli troops.

Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, February 8, 2025

The IDF confirmed today that its forces carried out a airstrike in the southern city of Rafah this morning targeting two suspects who had tried to smuggle a drone into Gaza. 

In what appeared to be an attempt to justify a potential IDF resumption of fighting in Gaza, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview published today that Israel cannot allow Hamas to use the ongoing ceasefire to rebuild itself.

‘Part of the challenge here is that Hamas continues to use networks to smuggle in weaponry and aid for themselves to reconstitute themselves,’ Rubio told NewsNation.

‘Israel can’t allow that to happen. You can’t allow Hamas to use the ceasefire to rebuild itself and recover strength,’ he added. ‘It’s a ceasefire, but it’s not a stupid ceasefire.’

US President Trump has said he does not think that Hamas will make the Saturday deadline for releasing the hostages and threatened to ‘let all hell break out’ if the terror group does not return all captives. 

A Hamas spokesman astonishingly lashed out at Trump, saying there was no place ‘for the language of threats’ – roughly 14 months after the terror group slaughtered more than 1,100 Israelis during the October 7 incursion, while also kidnapping and raping hundreds. 

On Monday the group said it was indefinitely scrapping a scheduled hostage release, claiming Israel had violated the ceasefire agreement that was agreed last month. 

As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas promised to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and an end to the hostilities.

Destroyed buildings after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim Corridor, central Gaza Strip, February 9 2025

Three of those hostages were set to be released on Saturday, but Hamas has claimed that Israel has not lived up to its side of the deal, citing recent Israeli shelling and gunfire in Gaza, as well as an insufficient flow of aid.

It added that it had announced the delay five days before the scheduled release to allow time for negotiations. 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, however, said any delay in the release of hostages would represent a ‘complete violation’ of the ceasefire agreement, and warned that Israel’s military would assume its ‘highest level of readiness,’ the Washington Post reports.

It added that it had announced the delay five days before the scheduled release to allow time for negotiations. 

It is currently unclear how many of the 76 hostages that remain in Hamas’ control are still alive.