Feb. 11 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel should terminate its cease-fire agreement with Hamas and “let all hell break out” if all the remaining hostages being held in Gaza were not freed by Saturday.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12:00 — I think it’s an appropriate time — I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday after Hamas said it was halting futher releases of hostages, accusing Israel of breaking the cease-fire deal.
He stressed that all the remaining hostages must be handed back by his deadline, not in groups of three or four as in the first five rounds of exchanges.
“I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it, but from myself, Saturday at 12:00, and if they’re not — they’re not here, all hell is going to break out,” added Trump, who would not clarify what “all hell” meant other than to say Hamas and the world would find out.
Hamas, which was due to free another three hostages Saturday in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, said Monday it was suspending plans for their release over what it said was Israel’s failure to permit agreed humanitarian supplies to get into Gaza, delaying the return of internally displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza and its forces opening fire on people.
The announcement drew a furious response from Israel, which said the delay in releasing hostages was a violation of the agreement, prompting Defense Minister Israel Katz to cancel all leave for military personnel and place Israel Defense Forces on the highest state of alert with orders to prepare for “any scenario in Gaza.”
Trump’s comments came as he was due to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah in Washington on Tuesday, a week after saying the United States would take over Gaza, move its 1.9 million residents on and that U.S. allies Jordan and Egypt should take them in.
Cairo and Amman, which already hosts more than 2 million Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency, immediately rejected the idea.
Trump has said he would apply pressure to get them to cooperate, suggesting the two countries owe the United States due to the considerable American aid they receive.
“If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” he told reporters Monday night.
ABC News said King Abdullah has spent the past week lobbying the U.N. and other countries that support a two-state solution in an effort to build a coalition against Trump’s Gaza proposal.
Al-Anani, while calling the talks between Trump and King Abdullah “very crucial,” said that Trump’s plans were a non-starter and that his country would not allow itself to be taken advantage of.
“The idea is not implementable. I’m afraid it involves a lot of human pain and it also ignored the basic rights of Palestinians.”
Al-Anani said that while Trump might believe he could “manipulate” Jordan, it had “a very good record of human rights” and would not “be trampled on.”
