Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the release of Palestinian prisoners planned for Saturday has been paused “until the release of the next hostages is guaranteed, and without the rituals of humiliation”.

Earlier, Hamas said Israel’s delay in releasing the seventh batch of Palestinians “at the agreed-upon time constitutes a blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement.

‘Anger, sadness’ in Gaza after Israel postpones detainee release

More than 400 people among the 620 Palestinian detainees slated for release on Saturday are from Gaza. They include women and children.

Some of those families have been responding to Israel’s decision to suspend the releases.

“The families of the POWs [prisoners of war] are in a state of anger, a state of sadness, a state of resentment, and the mediators must do their part as they started to complete it so that the families of the POWs can rejoice at the release of their POWs who were supposed to be released today,” said Bassam al-Khatib.

“You have received your POWs so why delay the handing over of our Palestinian POWs? This is something that hurts the heart, the lack of commitment and a disregard for all international standards and laws, and a disregard for the countries sponsoring this agreement,” he added.

Bader Abu Alia, the family member of a Palestinian prisoner who was set to be released on Saturday, said the relatives of the detainees came with young children to welcome their loved ones.

The families waited in the cold weather and rain all day, he said.

“We came with our wives and children, as you can see, all these are family members and we were surprised to see that there is a delay. This time that passes is burdening us, it’s heavy, every minute feels like an hour or day,” Abu Alia told Reuters.

“As you see, people are devastated. Hopefully, God will help them and they will be released as soon as possible,” he added.