President Donald Trump warned Hamas, “If the hostages are not released by Saturday…”
Washington, DC: According to the Times of Israel, US President Donald Trump said Monday that if all captives are not freed by the end of the week, Israel should halt the truce in Gaza and launch new military operations.
This followed Hamas’ announcement that the captive release planned for Saturday would be postponed. Trump told the press that he would talk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that Israel could decide to ignore his ultimatum and the deadline of Saturday noon.
As far as I’m concerned, Saturday at 12 p.m. is a suitable time if none of the hostages are returned. Let hell break out, cancel it, and all bets are off, in my opinion. According to Trump, they should be returned by Saturday at 12 p.m.
According to the Times of Israel, Trump’s remarks were made only hours after Hamas said that it would postpone the next release of Israeli detainees scheduled for Saturday “until further notice,” citing alleged Israeli breaches of the current ceasefire agreement.
The release of the hostages “who were scheduled to be released next Saturday… will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively,” according to a post on X by Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing Qassam Brigades, just before Trump’s remarks, CNN reported.
He said, “We affirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation commits to them.”
Hamas later claimed in a statement that there was still a possibility the planned release would go forward as planned. In order to put pressure on Israel to “fully honor” the provisions of the ceasefire deal, the organization characterized the delay as a “warning” to the nation.
“Hamas hopes that by making this announcement five full days before the planned prisoner exchange, mediators will have enough time to put pressure on the occupation to carry out its responsibilities. CNN said that the statement said, “This also leaves the door open for the exchange to proceed as planned, provided the occupation complies.”
According to a video released by the White House on Monday, Trump again likened the captives that Hamas had freed to Holocaust survivors.
Trump said, “Hamas has been a disaster,” in the video. I must add that when I saw the captives return today, they seemed to be Holocaust survivors. They were in terrible shape. They were malnourished.
“They have been treated horribly and brutally,” Trump said. Although they were somewhat better off, even the ones who got out early had terrible mental treatment. Who could tolerate that? We will eventually run out of patience, you know. In the spectacle I saw today, malnourished individuals who seem to have gone without food for a month emerge from helicopters and aircraft. There’s no justification for it.
