Israeli defense minister says Hamas violated agreement to return 15 women and 2 children

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant blames Hamas for breaching the truce agreement with Israel, he said in a news conference Saturday. 

"Hamas explicitly violated the agreement we reached with the US, Egypt and Qatar," Gallant said. 

The truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed after Hamas promised to return the remaining 15 women and two children but did not follow through, Gallant said.  

Gallant also addressed Hamas' Wednesday claim that two young children — 4-year-old Ariel and 10-month-old Kfir Bibas — had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, stating only that they had been photographed alive earlier.

"Hamas promised to bring women and children; there have been 17 left behind. We need all 17, two kids of the Bibas family and 15 women," Gallant said.

"This is their obligation because we agreed on it," he said. 

CNN earlier reported that the negotiations between Israel and Hamas broke down Saturday after Israel continued to insist on the release of a group of women and Hamas refused, according to a source familiar with the talks. As negotiations stood at an impasse over the women, Hamas pushed to begin negotiations on the release of men — possibly for a different set of terms, according to the source. Israel rejected that idea, insisting that it was imperative that all women be released first. 

Israeli and US officials believe Hamas continues to hold hostage a number of women between the approximate ages of 20 to 30 — many of them kidnapped from the Nova music festival — CNN previously reported. Hamas has been insisting that some of the remaining women they were holding hostage were considered part of the Israel Defense Forces, which Israel denies. 

IDF operations in Gaza won't stop, Gallant says: The defense minister added that the Israel Defense Forces operations in Gaza will continue.  

"Gaza City is more than half of Hamas' power," Gallant said. "We still have work to do there. We will continue to act all around the Gaza Strip."

When asked about whether Israeli bombardment of Gaza could impact the remaining hostages, Gallant expressed that the "aggressive action" taken by the IDF is necessary. 

"We take everything into consideration," he said.