Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday accused Hamas of backing out of a cease-fire deal to release hostages and bring a pause to more than a year of fighting in the Gaza Strip. 

Netanyahu’s office said Thursday his Cabinet won’t meet to vote on the Gaza cease-fire deal until Hamas backs down from what it called a “last minute crisis.”

Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas, without elaborating, of trying to go back on part of the agreement in an attempt “to extort last minute concessions.” 

The Israeli Cabinet was set to ratify the deal Thursday.

ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE, HOSTAGE RELEASE DEAL REACHED: ‘AMERICANS WILL BE PART OF THAT’

President Biden joined Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a Wednesday news conference announcing that the deal would roll out in three phases. 

Biden said the first phase will last six weeks and “includes a full and complete cease-fire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded. And I’m proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release and phase one as well. And the vice president and I cannot wait to welcome them home,” he said. 

U.S. President Joe Biden (C) delivers remarks on the recently announced cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas while joined by Vice President Kamala Harris (L)  and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Cross Hall of the White House on January 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. The multiphase cease-fire deal, brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, commits Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza after 15 months.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In exchange, Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Biden said, and Palestinians “can also return to their neighborhoods in all areas of Gaza, and a surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin.”

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the militant group “is committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators.”

‘WORST FAREWELL SPEECH IN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY’: BIDEN’S OVAL OFFICE GOODBYE PANNED AS ‘DARK’

Netanyahu’s office had earlier accused Hamas of backtracking on an earlier understanding that he said would give Israel a veto over which prisoners convicted of murder would be released in exchange for hostages.

Under the terms of the cease-fire deal, 33 hostages are set to be released over the next six weeks in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israeli forces will pull back from many areas, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be able to return to what’s left of their homes, and there would be a surge of humanitarian assistance.

Citizens gather on Place de la Republique to celebrate the cease-fire agreement in Gaza between Hamas and Israel in Paris, France on January 15, 2025. (Luc Auffret/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The remainder of the hostages, including male soldiers, are to be released in a second that will be negotiated during the first. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it dismantles the group and to maintain open-ended security control over the territory.

Netanyahu has faced great domestic pressure to bring home the scores of hostages, but his far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government if he makes too many concessions. He has enough opposition support to approve an agreement, but doing so would weaken his coalition and make early elections more likely.

‘LYING TO THE NATION’: TRUMP ORBIT SLAMS BIDEN FOR TAKING CREDIT FOR CEASEFIRE DEAL

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight as people were celebrating the ceasefire deal. Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 48 people were killed in Israeli strikes between midday Wednesday and Thursday morning. Around half of the dead were women and children, Zaher al-Wahedi, head of the ministry’s registration department, told The Associated Press. He said the toll could rise as hospitals update their records.

FILE: Smoke billows after Israeli army launched an airstrike on Al Mughraqa area in Gaza Strip, on April 14, 2024. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. are expected to meet in Cairo on Thursday for talks on implementing the agreement. They have spent the past year holding indirect talks with Israel and Hamas that finally resulted in a deal after repeated setbacks.

President-elect Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy joined the talks in the final weeks, and both the outgoing administration and Trump’s team are taking credit for the breakthrough.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 46,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry. it does not say how many of the dead were militants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced some 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, according to the United Nations.

Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Greenland wants a stronger EU presence over the territory’s critical raw materials needed to build new clean energy technologies such as solar panels and batteries, Aaja Chemnitz, a member of the Danish parliament for Greenland’s left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) separatist party, told Euronews. 

“We (IA) would like to see the EU much more engaged when it comes to rare earths. We know that 73% of everything the EU needs when it comes to rare earths can be found in Greenland, and right now we have more or less a Chinese monopoly when it comes to rare earths,” she pointed out, seeing an opportunity for the EU to invest in this area.    

In recent years, the EU has pushed for greater cooperation with the island on energy and rare earths, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the island last March to open an EU office in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital.    

However, Chemnitz believes that the EU and Denmark have not paid enough attention to Greenlanders but now have a window of opportunity to strengthen relations with the island in a “more realistic way”, including on defence and security.  

Greenland’s largest party, IA, is currently “concerned” about the security situation in the Arctic after US President-elect Donald Trump’s staked claimto the world’s largest island and given Russia’s national interest in the region, the MP stressed.   

“I think finding ways to cooperate with a new ally is not (by) threatening them,” Chemnitz said, referring to Trump’s refusal to rule out military intervention to take over Greenland.   

Chemnitz, who chairs the Greenland committee in the Danish parliament, argued that given the strategic interests of power players such as the US, the EU, Russia or China, it will be crucial for her territory to find out which countries and regions Greenland can cooperate with in the future.    

“I see that of course Denmark, the EU, but also the US is someone we can cooperate with, but I think it should be very specific (cooperation), especially with the US,” the Greenlandic MP stressed, citing issues such as critical raw materials, tourism, education and defence.   

The sea routes around Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, offer the shortest route from North America to Europe, and the US President-elect wants the strategic edge for his military and its ballistic missile early warning system.    

The US has demonstrated an eagerness to expand its military presence in Greenland by placing radars in the waters between Greenland, Iceland, and the UK – but security and foreign affairs are still managed from Copenhagen.    

Greenland’s independence from Denmark a ‘long-term goal’

Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede said earlier this week that his government was ready to work more closely with the US on defence and mining, but on its own terms.    

“We do not want to be Danes, we do not want to be Americans – of course we want to be Greenlanders,” Egede told a press conference in Copenhagen on Friday.    

Egede, who has led the Inuit Ataqatigiit party since 2018, has made clear that it will be for the almost 57,000 Greenlanders to decide on their own future and agreements, and that remaining part of the Kingdom of Denmark is not an option.    

Since 2009, Greenland has had the right to declare independence through a referendum, and Egede has previously hinted that a possible referendum could take place during Greenland’s new political mandate – but for Chemnitz, his party colleague, this is more of a “long-term goal”.    

“I don’t see it happening because I don’t see the plan for it, and I don’t think there is a shortcut to independence, even though it is the biggest wish and dream for many of us in Greenland,” she said.  

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For now, the Greenlander sees the need to diversify and boost Greenland’s cooperation with other global players, and to focus on next spring’s parliamentary elections.    

“The government of Denmark has done a good job in recognising that every decision about Greenland’s future is up to the people of Greenland,” Chemnitz said, adding that “it is important to say ‘hands off’ when it comes to Denmark, but also the EU, but also the US, Russia, China and so on when it comes to the elections”.    

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