Donald Trump has threatened to “let all hell break out” if Hamas does not return all the remaining Israeli hostages on Saturday in a potentially game-changing move. The Mail has more.
A Hamas spokesman said there was no place “for the language of threats” – roughly 14 months after the terror group slaughtered more than 1,100 Israelis during the October 7th incursion, while also kidnapping and raping hundreds.
Last night the group said it was indefinitely scrapping a scheduled hostage release, claiming Israel had violated the ceasefire agreement that was agreed last month.
Trump told reporters late on Monday night that while the decision ultimately rests on Israel’s shoulders, “as far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock – I think it’s an appropriate time – I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out”.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior spokesperson for the terror group known for its tight stranglehold over the Gaza Strip, boldly claimed that Trump’s comments did nothing but make the negotiation for the end of the war harder.
“The language of threats has no value and further complicates matters,” Zuhri remarked.
He added that Trump needed to “remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties and this is the only way to return the prisoners”.
As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas promised to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and an end to the hostilities.
Three of those hostages were set to be released on Saturday, but Hamas has claimed that Israel has not lived up to its side of the deal, citing recent Israeli shelling and gunfire in Gaza, as well as an insufficient flow of aid.
It added that it had announced the delay five days before the scheduled release to allow time for negotiations.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, however, said any delay in the release of hostages would represent a “complete violation” of the ceasefire agreement, and warned that Israel’s military would assume its “highest level of readiness”, the Washington Post reports.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Benjamin Netanyahu has taken up Trump’s offer to decimate Hamas if it does not release three of the hostages on Saturday and the other nine in the “coming days”. In a statement issued after a meeting with his Security Cabinet, the Israeli Prime Minister said: “If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israeli military) will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated.”
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