US President Donald Trump announced on Monday, the 10th of February, that Hamas must release all hostages held in the Gaza Strip by noon on Saturday, or he will call for an end to the ceasefire in Gaza and “let hell break out”, to which a senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, replied on Tuesday that Trump must remember that the only way to bring Israeli hostages home is to respect the ceasefire, reports Reuters.
Hamas, which was supposed to gradually release the hostages under a January ceasefire, has delayed the hostages’ release until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the truce by continuing its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
TRUMP SAID ON MONDAY THAT “IF ALL THE HOSTAGES ARE NOT RETURNED BY SATURDAY AT 12 O’CLOCK”, HE WOULD PROPOSE CANCELLING THE CEASEFIRE AND “LET HELL BREAK OUT”.
He said he wanted the hostages to be released en masse, instead of a few at a time. “We want them all back,” he said.
Trump cautioned that Israel might want to override him on the issue and said he might speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both sides and that is the only way to get the hostages back. Threatening language has no value and only complicates the situation,” said Sami Abu Zuhri .
Trump has angered the Arab world by suggesting that the US could take over the Gaza Strip, move more than two million people out of it and make it the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Trump said on Monday that he would suspend aid to Jordan and Egypt if they do not accept Palestinian refugees to be resettled from the Gaza Strip.
He said that under his proposal to rebuild the enclave, Palestinians would not have the right to return to the Gaza Strip, contradicting several officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have said that Gazans would only be temporarily resettled.
In a Fox News interview broadcast on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could reach an agreement with Jordan and Egypt to take in the displaced Palestinians, saying that the US gives those two countries “billions and billions of dollars a year”.
Trump is meeting King Abdullah of Jordan on Tuesday in what is likely to be a tense meeting after all Trump’s statements and promises on the Gaza Strip.
Forced displacement of people under military occupation is a war crime, prohibited by the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
The Gaza war, which started after Hamas attacks on Israeli territory in October 2023, has been suspended since mid-January under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US.
TWO EGYPTIAN SECURITY SOURCES TOLD REUTERS ON MONDAY THAT THE MEDIATORS FEARED THAT THE CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT COULD BE BROKEN.
So far, 16 of the 33 hostages released in the first 42-day phase of the deal have returned home, as well as five Thai hostages who were released in an unscheduled operation.
In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of prisoners and detainees, including prisoners serving life sentences for serious assaults and Palestinians who were detained during the war and are being held without charge.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated in a post on X that “we must avoid at all costs a resumption of hostilities in Gaza, which would cause a huge tragedy” and called on “Hamas to go ahead with the planned release of hostages”.