Feb. 11 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas, in a video statement Wednesday night local time, that if the rest of the hostages are not released by Saturday at noon, the “cease-fire will be terminated” and Hamas will be “decisively defeated.”
Netanyahu made the statement after a meeting with his cabinet. The prime minister said he would stick with U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that all hostages be freed this weekend or “all hell is going to break out.”
“I have just concluded an in-depth four-hour discussion in the security cabinet,” Netanyahu said. “We all expressed outrage at the appalling condition of the three hostages who were released last Saturday.”
“We also all welcomed President Trump’s demand for the release of our hostages by noon on Saturday, and we also welcomed the president’s revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza,” Netanyahu added.
“The decision that I passed unanimously in the cabinet is this: If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday afternoon — the cease-fire will be terminated, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated,” the prime minister said.
On Friday, Hamas said it was suspending the next round of hostage releases, which were scheduled for Feb. 15, until further notice after accusing Israel of what it called violations of the cease-fire agreement. While Hamas accused Israel of blocking supplies and Palestinians from reaching the Gaza Strip, Israel called the accusations “fake.”
On Monday, President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that, if it were up to him, he would abandon the cease-fire until all hostages are freed.
“I would say Saturday at 12, we want them all back,” Trump said. “I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it. But from myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock, and if they’re not, they’re not here, all hell is going to break out.”
Trump also speculated that the remaining hostages being held in Gaza may not be in good physical condition.
“Who knows? Are they alive? Are they not alive? But when I saw the condition of the last ones that came out,” Trump said. “They’re not going to be alive right now, based on what I saw over the last two days, they’re not going to be alive for long.”
On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that the oldest hostage — Shlomo Mantzur, 86 — taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack was killed that day.
Last weekend, Hamas released three Israel hostages in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners. The three men were thin, pale and in “poor” medical condition, according to the hospital where they received care after their release.
It was the fifth handoff since last month’s cease-fire. During the first phase, which was to last six weeks, 33 Israeli hostages were to be released. At least eight of the 33 are dead. To date, 16 Israeli hostages have been freed.
During phase two of the cease-fire, 56 male hostages would remain in Gaza with 26 of them declared dead.
In his statement, Netanyahu said he has instructed IDF to prepare at the “highest level of alert.”
“In light of Hamas’s announcement of its decision to violate the agreement and not release our hostages, I instructed IDF last night to amass forces inside and around the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu said. “This operation is underway as we speak and will be completed as soon as possible.”
Netanyahu met with Trump last week at the White House, where they discussed the president’s controversial proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza to other regional nations as they rebuild the area.
“The United States will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump told reporters after his meeting with the Israeli prime minister. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.”
“They are not going to want to go back to Gaza,” Trump added, as he called for the resettlement of Palestinians. “Gaza is a hell-hole right now … I think the potential in Gaza is unbelievable.”
While Netanyahu called Trump’s plan “revolutionary” and “creative,” regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were not on board.
Trump told reporters Monday he could withhold billions of dollars in aid to Egypt and Jordan to convince them to take in those Palestinians displaced from Gaza.
On Tuesday at the White House, Trump hosted Jordanian King Abdullah II, who announced Jordan would take in thousands of children from Gaza, but would not commit to anything beyond that.
“I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children that are either cancer children or in a very ill state to Jordan as quickly as possible,” Abdullah said. “And then wait for, I think the Egyptians to present their plan on how we can work with the president to work on a collage of challenges.”
