From the Liveblog of
Friday, February 14, 2025
Trump: I’d take a hard stance on Gaza tomorrow, but I can’t say what Israel will do
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Donald Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office, “I don’t know what’s going to happen at 12 o’clock” — a reference to the deadline he put in place earlier this week, saying all hell should come down on Gaza if all remaining hostages aren’t released by Saturday at noon.
The deadline — issued amid frustration with the condition of the hostages released last weekend — would go against the terms of the deal that Israel and Hamas inked last month, with Trump’s help.
Israel has apparently sought to gingerly stick with the existing deal’s terms without upsetting Trump, sending messages to Hamas through mediators that it is prepared to continue with the deal if the terror group releases three hostages on Saturday as stipulated.
“If it was up to me, I’d take a very hard stance. I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump tells reporters.
ממליצה לצפות בקטע המלא של טראמפ עונה על מה יקרה מחר ב12:00:״לא יכול להגיד לכם מה ישראל תעשה״ אומר טראמפ ומוסיף: ״ אני הייתי נוקט בעמדה אחרת, אבל זה תלוי. זה תלוי במה שביבי הולך לעשות. זה תלוי במה שישראל הולכת לעשות״ ומספר איך האמירה שלו שינתה את עמדת חמאס pic.twitter.com/fX73YsukI0
— יונה לייבזון yuna leibzon (@YunaLeibzon) February 14, 2025
He then appears to credit his deadline for having been what led Hamas to agree to release three hostages tomorrow after it had initially threatened not to do so.
“Now I understand that Hamas has totally changed. They want to release hostages again. This started with them saying, ‘We’re not going to release the hostages as we said we were,’” he tells reporters.
“I said, ‘Good, you have until 12 o’clock on Saturday to do it’… and then all of the sudden two days ago, they said, ‘No, we’ve decided we’re going to release the hostages,'” Trump continues. “But I think they should release all of the hostages.”
