Trump threatens to ‘let hell break out’ after Hamas halts hostage release

Jerusalem: US President Donald Trump has reacted to a delay in the release of hostages announced by Hamas by saying all captives in Gaza must be released by midday Saturday, or he will propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and “let hell break out”.

Hamas earlier announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what the Palestinian militant group called violations of the ceasefire agreement, raising the risk of reigniting the conflict.

Donald Trump has called for all the Israeli hostages to be released by midday this Saturday.Credit: Bloomberg

The unexpected announcement came even as families of the Israeli hostages urged the government to stick to the deal, and Gazans sought to start rebuilding their lives in the shattered enclave after more than 15 months of war.

Hamas military wing spokesperson Abu Ubaida said Israeli violations included delaying Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, shelling and firing upon Palestinians and stopping humanitarian aid from entering the strip.

Trump cautioned that Israel might want to override him on his response and said he might speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But in a wide-ranging session with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump also expressed anger with the physical condition of the last group of hostages freed by Hamas on Saturday, who appeared gaunt.

Freed Palestinian prisoners arrive in the Gaza Strip after being released from an Israeli prison on Saturday.Credit: AP

“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 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. I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday,” Trump said.

The president said he wanted the hostages released en masse instead of a few at a time as per the deal negotiated with help from Qatar, Egypt and the United States. “We want ’em all back.”

Trump also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don’t take the nearly 2 million Palestinian refugees he wants relocated from Gaza so that it can be turned into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Palestinians, Jordan, Egypt and regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia have rejected the proposal outright. He is to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday.

Israeli captives (from left) Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy flanked by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza on Saturday.Credit: nna\advidler

The comments came on a day of some confusion over Trump’s proposal for the US takeover of Gaza once the fighting stops.

He said Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, contradicting his own officials who had suggested Gazans would only be relocated temporarily.

In an excerpt of an interview with Fox News channel’s Bret Baier broadcast on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying the US gives the two countries “billions and billions of dollars a year”.

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

“I’m talking about building a permanent place for them,” he said, adding it would take years for Gaza to be habitable again.

Hamas was to release more Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and other Palestinians held in Israeli detention, as had happened over the past three weeks.

The ceasefire has largely held since it began on January 19, although there have been some incidents in which Israeli forces have killed Palestinians and Hamas delays in providing names of hostages it planned to free. The amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza has increased since the ceasefire, aid agencies say.

But Hamas’ Abu Ubaida said the next scheduled hostage release would be postponed until Israel complied with the ceasefire agreement and “compensates for the past weeks”.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the announcement violated the ceasefire deal and that he had instructed the military to be at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and for domestic defence.

An Israeli official said Netanyahu was holding security consultations. The security cabinet, which includes defence, national security and foreign affairs ministers, will meet on Tuesday morning, the official said.

Two Egyptian security sources told Reuters that mediators feared a breakdown of the ceasefire deal.

A group representing hostage families called on mediators to rescue the deal, while another group representing Israeli military veterans accused the government of intentionally sabotaging the ceasefire.

Hostage release

So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be released in the first 42-day phase of the deal have come home, as well as five Thai hostages who were returned in an unscheduled release.

In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of prisoners and detainees, including those serving life sentences for deadly attacks and Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.

But Hamas has accused Israel of dragging its feet on allowing aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the agreement, a charge Israel has rejected as untrue.

In turn, Israel has accused Hamas of not respecting the order in which the hostages were to be released and of orchestrating abusive public displays before large crowds when they were handed over to the Red Cross.

Talks on a second stage of the ceasefire deal, to agree on the release of the remaining hostages and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, began last week but have shown little sign of serious progress.

Earlier, Netanyahu’s office had said an Israeli delegation had returned from ceasefire talks in Qatar amid already growing doubts over the Egyptian and Qatari-brokered process to end the war.

There was no immediate explanation. The talks are intended to agree on the basis for a second stage of the multiphase ceasefire and hostage-for-prisoner exchange accord reached last month.

A Palestinian official close to the discussions said progress was being held up by mistrust between the two sides.

Israelis were shocked by the emaciated appearance of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, the three hostages who were released on Saturday, which has complicated the picture.

An Israeli Channel 13 poll showed that 67 per cent of Israelis wanted to move to the next phase of the deal while 19 per cent did not. The poll was taken before Hamas announced it was postponing the process.

Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.