Trump Warns of Chaos if Gaza Hostages Are Not Released

Gaza: If every Israeli hostage is not released from Gaza in a few days, US President Donald Trump warned Monday that “all hell” will break lose. This comes after Hamas threatened to stall any further exchanges under the ceasefire deal that they say Israel is breaching.

The ceasefire that came into effect on January 19 put to an end more than 15 months of conflict in the Gaza Strip, and also saw five groups of Israeli captives being released in return for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli custody.

But after Trump’s shocking suggestion of taking over the Gaza strip with its more than two million residents has sent tensions through the roof.

On Monday, Trump did not hold back in his comments, saying he is willing to bring the ceasefire to an end if every Israeli prisoner is not released by noon on Saturday viciously unleashing my savior trump card.

“I am saying, as far as I am concerned, if all of the hostages are not returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday – for heavens sake, I think it’s an appropriate time,” Trump said at the White House. He told reporters “I would say, let hell break lose.”

The ceasefire agreement says staggered releases of prisoners should take place over the 42 day first phase of the deal that is already underway.

A representative of Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, noted in a statement earlier Monday that the next hostage release, “which was meant to take place next Saturday, February 15, 2025, has been put on hold for the time being.'”

“Complete violation”

In Qatar, delegates were expected to discuss specifics regarding the implementation of the ceasefire, along with further stages which are not yet finalized. The people in charge of negotiations for the second phase were meant to start working on it on day 16 of the ceasefire, however Israel did not bring its negotiators to Doha.

The campaign group that runs the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said that as of Monday, they had ‘sought help from the mediating nations to assist in restoring and implementing the deal as required efficiently.’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz noted that the announcement by Hamas was ‘a complete violation’ of the ceasefire message, meaning acknowledgment of fighting could start again. “I have instructed the IDF to prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza.” said Katz in the statement.

Later on, the military stated they had made changes ‘the level of readiness’ around Gaza and decided to ‘significantly reinforce the area’.

Trump On Jordan, Egypt

While returning to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet that Trump’s Gazan displacement proposal is his most brilliant one yet, and commended Trump on his disintegrating international law. It is no wonder that other nations have criticized the plan in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

On his Monday statement, Trump explained that he could “conceivably” stop charging the United States’ Jordan and Egypt to aid, if they refuse to accept their share of Palestinians from the Gaza region.

This week, it is Trumps turn to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington. This week also bore the threat of ceasing finances after the Egyptian foreign ministry stated they cannot accept any term of remaining on the occupied land.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump stated Palestinians will not have the option of returning to Gaza. Explaining further, Trump argued, “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.” Which is years to decades away.

When asked whether the Palestinians would have the option to go back, Trump explained, “No, because they're going to have much better housing.” For Palestinians, any attempt to remove them from Gaza will resurface the dismal events that the Arab world refers to as Nakba, the mass displacement of Palestinians at Israeli statehood in 1948.

Despite Trump's remarks, the Palestinian populace of the Gaza Strip continued to go back to their homes in the region after the Israeli military left the area. Checkpoints were established where US and Egyptian security forces were checking cars crossing the corridor and, according to one Gaza resident who spoke to AFP, their behavior was "very polite," but the probing was “demanding and time-consuming.”

Ahmed al-Rai claimed “it takes 20 minutes to inspect each vehicle,” and he also stated that he had to wait five hours for my turn.

'Ill Treatment'

The Gaza war erupted after Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023, resulting in the most fatalities in Israel’s history and the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians as stated by an Israeli official source, an AFP count.

Militants abducted 251 individuals, of which 34 are believed to have died, 73 are still in Gaza. The Hamas government of Gaza claims that the war has resulted in the death of over 48,208 civilians within the territory. Under the ongoing ceasefire, the Israeli government and Hamas were able to finalize their fifth hostage-prisoner transfer agreement whereby three Israeli captives and 183 Palestinian detainees were released on Saturday.

UN Human Rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan stated that the “images of emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released” were “deeply distressing.” He furthered that “the Israelis freed, for instance, show manifest signs of serious ill treatment combined with severe malnutrition, conditions which are absolutely of dire need of what one would call calms in Gaza,” he claimed.

Netanyahu’s office said that “all the families of the hostages were informed” about Hamas’s announcement made on Monday that “the State of Israel is obligated to respect the agreement and is fully aware that the families are hostages.”