The US President, Donald Trump, has stated that the Hamas should release all Israeli hostages by the end of the week, or else the Palestinian group can expect devastating retaliations. This demand was made by Trump in a press conference in the Oval Office on Monday.
Recently, the Hamas had threatened to postpone the release of a new group of hostages, originally planned for the coming Saturday, “until further notice”. The group cited Israel’s alleged breach of the cease-fire agreement as the reason.
The Hamas should refrain from this threat and release the captives by Saturday at 12 pm. If not, Trump would demand that Israel end the cease-fire and the consequences would be severe for the Hamas. Moreover, all Israeli settlers would be required to leave the Gaza Strip at once, not “piecemeal”, as they have been leaving so far. CNN quoted the President as saying: “By 12 pm on Saturday and after that, I would say, hell would be unleashed.”
When asked what the “hell” could mean for Gaza, Trump replied that the Hamas would soon find out what he meant. The President, however, made it clear that his words did not bind Israel and that the Israeli government could disregard them. Trump also expressed skepticism about the fate of the hostages, fearing that many of them might have already been killed.
The cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Hamas came into effect on January 19. According to the agreement, the Palestinian movement is obligated to hand over a total of 33 Israeli hostages within 42 days, in exchange for Israel’s release of over 1,850 Palestinians from its prisons. The hostage exchange was to be conducted every Saturday. After the Hamas questioned the planned handover for February 15, Israel put its defense forces on high alert.