Trump says Gaza ceasefire should be cancelled if all Israeli hostages not freed

 

Trump says Gaza ceasefire should be cancelled if all Israeli hostages not freed

 

President proposes letting ‘all hell break loose’ if hostages held by Hamas are not returned to Israel at noon on Saturday

 

Andrew Roth in Washington, Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Jerusalem

Tue 11 Feb 2025 00.40 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/trump-gaza-ceasefire-hamas-hostages

 

Donald Trump has warned that if all the Israeli hostages held in Gaza are not returned by Saturday at noon he would propose canceling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and letting “all hell break loose”.

 

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office late on Monday, the US president also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if those countries do not take Palestinian refugees being relocated from Gaza.

 

Trump’s comments came after Hamas said it was delaying the release of hostages indefinitely over “violations” of the ceasefire deal, prompting Israel’s defence minister to put the country’s military on alert with orders to prepare for “any scenario in Gaza”.

 

Trump called the statement by Hamas “terrible” and said he would “let that be Israel’s decision” on what should ultimately happen to the ceasefire.

 

“But 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,” Trump said.

 

The ultimatum could end a three-week-old ceasefire which dictates a strict schedule for the release of the Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.

 

Trump said the hostages should be released “not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two”.

 

“We want them all back. I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it, but for myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock – and if they’re not here, all hell is going to break out,” he said.

 

Trump indicated he had not spoken to Benjamin Netanyahu about the timeline he suggested. Asked about any concrete measures he was threatening to take to enforce his demand, Trump said: “You’ll find out. And they’ll find out too. Hamas will find out what I mean. These are sick people.”

 

He did not directly respond to a question on whether or not that would entail US military action.

 

Hamas, Israeli and Arab officials have already warned that the ceasefire is at a breaking point, and Trump’s radical intervention could stoke fears that Washington does not have any intent to continue with the phased deal.

 

A Hamas spokesperson cited past Israeli violations for halting the exchanges, but the militant group’s threat to suspend hostage releases comes against a backdrop of increasingly hardline US and Israeli positions about the long-term future of the strip.

 

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Trump also said that he could “conceivably” withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt – some of the US’s closest allies in the region – unless they agreed to his plan for the US to “take over” Gaza and to relocate millions of Palestinians to the neighbouring states in what would amount to an effective ethnic cleansing.

 

“If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold it,” Trump said.

 

That threat came after Egypt rejected earlier Monday “any compromise” that would infringe on Palestinians’ rights, in a statement issued after foreign minister Badr Abdelatty met with his US counterpart in Washington.

 

Egyptian security sources separately told Reuters that mediators fear the ceasefire could collapse and have postponed talks until they receive a clear indication of Washington’s intent to continue with the phased deal.

 

Israel’s security cabinet has moved forward a meeting to discuss negotiations on the second phase, which had been scheduled for Tuesday evening.

 

The army has cancelled all leave for soldiers in the Gaza division, the Kan news outlet reported, in another sign that Israeli authorities are preparing for the resumption of war.

 

Before Trump’s comments, Hamas said the “door remains open” for the next hostage-prisoner exchange on Saturday.

 

In a statement, the group said it had “intentionally made this announcement five days before the scheduled prisoner handover, allowing mediators ample time to pressure [Israel] towards fulfilling its obligations”.

 

It added: “The door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies.”

 

Trump’s comments on the ceasefire were his second apparently unscripted intervention in the crisis on Monday.

 

Earlier, he said that his plan to “take over Gaza” would not include a right of return for the more than 2 million Palestinians that he has said have “no alternative” but to leave because of the destruction left by Israel’s military campaign.

 

Asked about Palestinians who refused to leave, Trump said: “They’re all gonna leave.”

 

Arab states have denounced the plan and the UN’s top investigator told Politico that Trump’s plan for the “forcible displacement of an occupied group is an international crime, and amounts to ethnic cleansing”.

 

In the interview with Fox’s Bret Baier, Trump said that he would “own” the Gaza Strip and declared it would be a “real estate development for the future”.

 

Asked if Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, Trump told Baier: “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing.

 

Donald Trump<br>President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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“Could be five, six, could be two,” he said. “But we’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.

 

“In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it’ll be years before you could ever – it’s not habitable,” he said.

 

Qatar had warned Israeli officials at the weekend that even the first stage of the ceasefire deal was being put in jeopardy by provocative statements from Netanyahu and by his government’s approach to talks on a second stage, Haaretz reported. Qatari diplomats sent angry messages to Israeli counterparts, reminding them that as hosts, key mediators and guarantors of the deal’s implementation, they too have a stake in its survival, an Israeli source said.

 

The next exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees had been scheduled for this Saturday and would have been the sixth under the six-week-long first stage of the ceasefire deal.

 

The skeletal appearance of three hostages released on Saturday shocked many Israelis, and increased pressure on the government to reach a deal to bring home those still trapped. Several recently returned hostages have said they fear those still inside Gaza will struggle to survive much longer.

 

In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked streets on Monday night, demanding the return of all hostages, as some relatives accused their government of sabotaging the deal and endangering their loved ones.

 

“Abu Obeida’s statement is a direct result of Netanyahu’s irresponsible behaviour,” said Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, who is a hostage in Gaza and not listed for release under the first stage of the deal. “[Netanyahu’s] deliberate procrastination and unnecessary provocative statements disrupted the implementation of the agreement.”

 

Hamas is due to release 33 hostages during the first stage of the deal, although eight of them are dead. The list of those who will be released includes women – civilians and soldiers – children, the sick and older men. Israel has agreed to release about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

 

Sixteen Israelis have been released so far, all alive, and Hamas also released five Thai citizens last week. They had not been included in the negotiations.

 

The second stage of the ceasefire deal is intended to bring the return of all living hostages and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, under a framework agreed days before Trump’s inauguration in January. Negotiations on the details of that stage were always expected to be even more challenging than agreeing the initial ceasefire.