ISTANBUL 

A former Israeli army officer has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump of risking the lives of hostages and undermining a Gaza ceasefire agreement, denying Hamas responsibility for violating the deal.

“As for Trump, he was the one who pushed for the signing of this agreement – the same agreement that was signed less than a month ago (...) And now, in the end, he is pressuring Israel to violate the agreement that he himself pushed them to sign,” Guy Poran, a former Air Force fighter pilot, said on a television program on Israeli channel i24News.

“He (Trump) is a guy who talks nonsense, and at the same time, he and Bibi (Netanyahu) are the ones responsible for the fate of the remaining hostages there, and that will be on him,” he said. 

“Trump and Netanyahu want to kill the hostages.”

When asked if the Palestinian resistance group Hamas was responsible for violating the ceasefire agreement, Poran said, “No, not at all.”

Netanyahu threatened Tuesday evening to end the Gaza ceasefire deal if Hamas failed to release 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.

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.

“That’s just nonsense, complete lies. Even the fact that Israel has this list – that is just an excuse. An excuse,” Poran said.

“This president (Trump) is crazy. Everything he says about deportations is the exact same thing he said about annexing Canada and Greenland, or building the wall with Mexico, claiming that Mexicans would pay for it,” added the former Israeli officer.

The three-phase ceasefire deal has been in place in Gaza since Jan. 19, halting Israel’s genocidal war that has killed more than 48,200 people and left the enclave in ruins.

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 first phase of the agreement.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.