Trump urges ending Gaza ceasefire if all hostages not released by noon Saturday

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump suggested Monday that Israel end a ceasefire in Gaza and resume fighting if all remaining hostages are not freed by the end of the week, after the Hamas terror group said it was delaying the release of hostages slated for Saturday, placing fresh doubts on whether the fraught truce will hold.

Speaking to reporters, Trump conceded that Israel might want to override him on the ultimatum and the Saturday noon deadline, adding that he might speak to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But he expressed fears for the fates of those still being held captive, predicting that many would not survive if not released in the coming days.

“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.

His comments came hours after Hamas announced that it intended to delay the release of Israeli hostages planned for Saturday, “until further notice,” in response to what it claimed were Israeli violations of the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal.

In his latest freewheeling session in the Oval Office, Trump expressed anger and frustration over the physical condition of three male hostages freed Saturday looking gaunt and emaciated, and decried the mental abuse to which they were subjected.

The president appeared to back off support for the staggered releases agreed to by Israel and Hamas under the truce, despite having been a driving force behind the ceasefire and hostage release deal before it went into effect on January 19.

“We want them all back,” he said, rejecting releases that came “in dribs and drabs.”

“Based on what I saw over the last two days, they’re not going to be alive for long,” Trump added. “Saturday at 12 o’clock, and after that, it’s going to be a different ballgame.”

The fiery threat echoed Trump’s warnings before entering office that “all hell would break loose” if no ceasefire deal was reached by January 20.

“Hamas will find out what I mean… These are sick people, and they’ll find out what I mean [on] Saturday at 12,” he said when pressed for details Monday.

Hamas has so far released 16 Israelis under the first phase of the deal in exchange for Israel freeing hundreds of Palestinian security detainees. Another five Thai hostages were also released under a side agreement.

Remaining in Gaza are 73 of the 251 people abducted by Hamas during its October 7 onslaught — when the terror group invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the war — including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

A total of 33 Israelis are slated to be released in the first phase of the deal. Negotiations are meant to be underway regarding further hostage releases and an Israeli military withdrawal from the Strip as part of subsequent stages of the deal.

But on Monday, Hamas military wing spokesman Hudhaifa Kahlout — known by the nom de guerre Abu Obeida — said that Israel had not fulfilled its obligations under the agreement over the past three weeks, claiming that the Israel Defense Forces was obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and targeting Palestinians returning to the north of the Strip.

“We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them,” the spokesman added.

In a subsequent statement, the terror group said it was open to fulfilling the release on time if Israel ceases its ostensible violations. It said it had intentionally made the announcement five days ahead of the planned release “to give the mediators sufficient opportunity to pressure the occupation to implement its obligations, and to keep the door open to implement the exchange on time if the occupation adheres to its obligations.”

The announcement prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move up a planned meeting of his high-level security cabinet, and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the military on high alert.

New threats to Arab allies

Trump also told reporters in the White House that he could withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don’t take in Palestinian refugees he wants to relocate from Gaza.

Egypt and Jordan are longstanding security partners for Israel, and rely heavily on US defense and economic support.

“If they don’t agree I would conceivably withhold aid,” he said in response to a question suggesting it as a possibility.

Both Egypt and Jordan have joined the rest of the Arab world in rejecting Trump’s proposal for all Palestinians to leave Gaza and instead settle in other countries, allowing the US to take over the Strip and redevelop the piece of coastal real estate.

Trump is set to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday.

In comments to Fox News aired Monday, the US president said Palestinians would not be allowed to return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the war-torn territory, contradicting his own officials who insisted that Gazans would be relocated only temporarily.

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.

Standing alongside Netanyahu in the White House last week, Trump shocked the hundreds of journalists in the room with a proposal to resettle Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians and the US taking control of the seaside territory, redeveloping it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Trump’s suggestion of Palestinian displacement has been repeatedly rejected by Gaza residents and Arab states, and labeled by rights advocates and the United Nations as a proposal of ethnic cleansing.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump’s statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was “irresponsible.”

“We affirm that such plans are capable of igniting the region,” he told Reuters on Monday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will depart later this week for his first visit to the Middle East in the office, said last week that Palestinians would have to “live somewhere else in the interim,” during reconstruction, although he declined to explicitly rule out their permanent displacement.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disparity between Rubio and Trump’s most recent remarks on the plan.

Rubio met Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Washington on Monday. Egypt’s foreign ministry said Abdelatty told Rubio that Arab countries support Palestinians in rejecting Trump’s plan. Cairo fears Palestinians could be forced across Egypt’s border with Gaza.

Trump said in the Fox News interview that between two and six communities could be built for the Palestinians “a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.”

“I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent,” he said.