The President's Daily Brief
PDB afternoon Bulletin | February 10th, 2025: Hamas Suspends Hostage Exchanges Indefinitely & Trump Talks To Putin
10 Feb 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: Hamas has announced it is delaying the release of Israeli hostages until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement. Israel calls it a complete breach of the deal and is now preparing for "any possible scenario" in Gaza. Former President Donald Trump says he’s already spoken with Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine. What did they discuss, and what does it mean for the conflict? To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Monday, 10 February. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First, Hamas has announced that it's delaying the release of Israeli hostages until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement.
Israel calls it a complete breach of the deal and is now preparing for, quote, any possible scenario in Gaza. Later in the show, President Trump reveals he's already spoken with Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, saying his Russian counterpart, quote, wants to see people stop dying. Well, then I guess he probably shouldn't have started the war in the first place.
But first, today's afternoon spotlight. We begin with breaking news. Hamas has announced that it's halting the scheduled release of Israeli hostages, claiming that Israel has failed to uphold its end of the ceasefire agreement. In a statement from its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigade,
Hamas accused Israel of blocking displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, targeting civilians with shelling and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid. They claimed Hamas had fully complied with the ceasefire, oh, and they stated that hostage releases would remain on hold until Israel met with what the terror group is calling past week's obligations. Huh.
It's almost like a terrorist organization, a creature of the Iranian regime, wants to dictate the terms of a ceasefire after starting this war with the slaughter of over a thousand Israeli citizens. But perhaps that makes me sound churlish. The next release was set to take place this Saturday, February 15th.
Three Israeli hostages, taken during Hamas's October 7 attacks, were supposed to be freed in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. This would have been the sixth swap since the ceasefire began last month. So far, 16 Israeli hostages and over 730 Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged.
In total, 17 Israeli hostages were still due to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire, eight of whom Israel says are dead. But now, Hamas is suspending the process indefinitely. A cynic, of course, would say that it's because they don't have any more living hostages or they don't know where they are. Predictably, Israel has responded forcefully to the announcement.
Defense Minister Israel Katz called Hamas' decision a, quote, complete violation of the ceasefire deal and said he has ordered the Israeli military to maintain the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza. Katz warned, quote, we will not allow a return to the reality of October 7th.
Meanwhile, an Israeli delegation is currently in Qatar negotiating the second phase of the hostage deal, which could see more captives released. However, it's unclear how today's developments will impact those talks or if the ceasefire itself will hold.
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