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Stalling the next release of hostages from the Gaza Strip, scheduled for the coming weekend, raises new challenges for the already tenuous six-week truce and chances for a lasting end to the war.

Israel says it has killed thousands of the armed group’s members and destroyed much of its infrastructure, but since the cease-fire started Hamas has shown it still holds power in the enclave.

Hamas said it will release the hostage Yarden Bibas, 35, on Saturday. His wife and children were also taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, but may not have survived.

The militant group’s chief negotiator also said Hamas would increase the number of living hostages it would release on Saturday to six from three.

Rarely seen in the open while the war raged, masked and armed fighters spread out publicly through Gaza’s cities in a show of force on Sunday.

Israeli forces stormed the site in November, drawing intense international scrutiny and criticism.

Hopes for a breakthrough were damped after Hamas said it would not attend the peace talks set for Thursday.

The terms Hamas had agreed to were not immediately clear, but a senior Israeli official quickly said that the terms were not those that Israel had agreed to.

Hamas wants assurances that Israel won’t restart the war after some hostages come home. Israel says it needs the option.

Israel has decimated Hamas’s military wing, along with much of Gaza. But the group’s small-scale, hit-and-run approach poses a threat in the enclave’s north.