Donald Trump says all hell should break loose on Hamas as ceasefire hangs by a thread
Hamas has shown again that it does not want peace in Gaza. For no good reason the terrorist group has made a wildly reckless threat to delay the release of more hostages indefinitely, putting the already fragile ceasefire agreement in Gaza in the gravest danger.
But this time, it seems Hamas has badly misread the mood of Donald Trump and Israel.
The US President reacted in the Oval Office with a stunning call for Israel to let “all hell break loose’’ in Gaza if “all hostages” are not released by noon on Saturday (4am Sunday AEDT).
He was speaking to an Israel that has been deeply wounded by the horrific Holocaust-like vision this week of three malnourished male hostages released after 16 months of torture and deprivation.
Israelis have also bristled at the deliberately humiliating staged nature of each hostage release, with the hostages being forced to stand in front of anti-Israeli signs, carrying Hamas-issued certificates, while surrounded by uniformed Hamas terrorists carrying stolen Israeli military guns.
Trump has lost patience with these games and it is likely that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has too. The President’s words have effectively given a green light to Netanyahu to resume hostilities against Hamas unless the group backs down quickly from its foolish threat.
If the war resumes in Gaza as a result of this, Hamas will only have itself to blame.
Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu in Washington last week and his urging of Israel to let “all hell break loose” on Hamas has changed the dynamics of the Gaza conflict.
Netanyahu was never an enthusiastic advocate of the three-stage ceasefire deal in which the details of only the first stage – the release of 33 hostages over six weeks in exchange for Palestinian prisoners – had been agreed. There is zero agreement so far about the second stage of the deal that calls for a permanent end to the fighting, a full Israeliwithdrawal from Gaza and the release of more hostages and prisoners.
As things now stand, the notion of the three stages ever being implemented is vanishingly small.
Trump’s words may give Netanyahu the ammunition he seems to have been looking for to end the ceasefire that he has only barely tolerated until now. But he would do so in the face of an outcry from the families of the remaining hostages who know that a resumption of the war is likely to be an effective death sentence for their loved ones still captive.
We are roughly halfway through that first stage, with 16 hostages released. About another nine living hostages are due to be released in the coming weeks with the other eight of the original 33 believed to be dead.
Every couple of days Israel and Hamas have accused the other of breaching the agreement in minor ways but the hostage releases have continued regardless. So Hamas’s sudden announcement that it will not release any more hostages is a dramatic step up from any other threat. Hamas accuses Israel of delaying the return of the displaced Gazans to the northern Strip, shooting at Palestinians and delaying the entry of fuel medical supplies, claims which Israel denies.
By making these disputed claims, Hamas has signalled that it is not really interested in a final peace deal. The group knows that neither Israel nor Trump will tolerate it continuing to rule Gaza once the war is officially over. Perhaps this is merely a bluff and Hamas will quickly realise what it has to lose and will continue to release the hostages under the agreed schedule. But Trump’s incendiary warnings should leave Hamas in no doubt about what might await it if war resumes.
Ever since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis, Hamas has made blunder after blunder that has seen it destroyed as a coherent military force, its leadership killed, its militant allies in the region cowed, tens of thousands of its own people killed and Gaza reduced to a wasteland.
For Hamas to risk restarting the war against Israel now when it has Trump’s complete and unquestioning support would be nuts. But then nothing Hamas has done since October 7 has made sense, either for its own survival or that of the Palestinian people it pretends to care for.
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