LONDON — If Hamas does not return Israeli hostages by Saturday afternoon, “the ceasefire shall be terminated,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Tuesday in a press release following a gathering along with his safety cupboard.
“The choice that I handed unanimously within the cupboard is that this: If Hamas doesn’t return our hostages by Saturday afternoon — the ceasefire shall be terminated, and the IDF will return to intense preventing till Hamas is lastly defeated,” Netanyahu stated.
Netanyahu is demanding all 9 residing Israeli hostages who had been imagined to be launched throughout section one of many ceasefire deal now be launched within the subsequent few days, an Israeli official informed ABC Information. Hamas violated the settlement; subsequently, there shall be no progress within the additional implementation of the settlement or in negotiations on the second section of the deal with out the return of Israeli hostages, in accordance with the official.
Netanyahu’s assertion comes after President Donald Trump warned that “all hell goes to interrupt out” except Hamas releases all remaining hostages from Gaza by Saturday, following the group’s announcement it might delay the most recent deliberate launch after accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire settlement.
Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace on Monday that it might be “acceptable” to desert the ceasefire except all hostages are freed. “I’d say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell get away,” he stated.
The president dismissed the “drips and drabs” course of set out within the January deal that slated small teams of hostages for launch through the three-phase ceasefire, in change for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners and withdrawing its forces from elements of Gaza.
“I’d say Saturday at 12, we would like all of them again,” Trump stated. “I am talking for myself. Israel can override it. However from myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock, and if they are not, they are not right here, all hell goes to interrupt out.”
President Donald Trump meets with Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on the White Home in Washington, Feb. 7, 2025.
Kent Nishimura/Reuters
In response, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri stated Trump “should bear in mind there’s an settlement that should be revered,” in a press release cited by Reuters. “The language of ‘threats’ has no worth and solely complicates issues,” Zuhri added.
The president additionally warned that these hostages nonetheless being held in Gaza will not be in good bodily situation.
“Who is aware of? Are they alive? Are they not alive? However I noticed the situation after I noticed the situation of the final ones that got here out,” Trump stated. “They don’t seem to be going to be alive proper now, primarily based on what I noticed during the last two days, they are not going to be alive for lengthy.”
Trump urged Hamas had launched the healthiest captives first. “They have extra to ship out, and so they in all probability really feel that they can not do this, as a result of it isn’t going to make them look superb,” he stated.
On Tuesday, it was introduced that the oldest hostage taken through the Oct. 7, 2023, assault — Shlomo Mantzur, 86 — had been killed that day. Mansour’s dying was introduced by the Kibutz Kissufim the place he lived and was later confirmed by the Israel Protection Forces.
Trump’s newest assertion adopted Hamas’ Monday announcement that it might delay the following scheduled launch of hostages, deliberate for Saturday.
In a press release, Hamas stated the postponement was meant as a “warning message” to Israel, which it stated had repeatedly violated the phrases of the January ceasefire deal.
Hamas accused Israel of stopping the return of displaced Gazans to the north of the strip, blocking the deliberate inflow of humanitarian help and persevering with to kill “many” Palestinians regardless of the pause in preventing.
Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz stated he instructed the IDF to organize on the “highest degree of alert” in response to Hamas’ announcement.
Following the assembly of his safety cupboard on Tuesday, Netanyahu instructed the IDF to “reinforce forces in and across the Gaza Strip and to organize for any situation” if Hamas doesn’t launch “the Israeli hostages this coming Saturday,” an Israeli official informed ABC Information.
The assembly lasted about 4 hours and was “thorough and in-depth,” the official stated.
All the cupboard members expressed help for Trump’s assertion that Israeli hostages needs to be launched by Saturday at midday and for his “revolutionary imaginative and prescient for the way forward for Gaza,” the official added.
There have to date been 5 rounds of exchanges between Hamas and Israel because the battle started. Thirty-three Israeli hostages are anticipated to be launched as a part of the primary section of the ceasefire settlement on account of final six weeks. The settlement was reached on Jan. 15.
Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are erected within the yard of a secondary college within the north of Gaza Metropolis, Feb. 10, 2025.
Bashar Taleb/AFP by way of Getty Photos
The ceasefire turbulence comes as Trump continues to advertise his controversial plan to completely relocate Gaza’s inhabitants — round 2 million individuals — to different regional nations.
The president stated throughout a taped Fox Information interview — elements of which had been launched on Monday — that Gazans resettled outdoors of the strip wouldn’t be allowed to return to the territory, which he has stated shall be “an actual property improvement for the longer term.”
Pressed on his remarks within the Oval Workplace on Monday, the president didn’t repeat his assertion that Palestinians wouldn’t be given the appropriate to return, however continued to insist that Gazans wouldn’t wish to stay within the devastated territory.
“We have spoken to a whole lot of Palestinians,” Trump stated. “They’d love to go away Gaza if they may discover a place to be. And I’ve spoken to numerous leaders of varied nations within the not so distant space from the place we’re speaking concerning the Gaza Strip, and I feel they had been very constructive about offering land.”
“What we want is land, and if we might construct a pleasant place for individuals to stay safely, everyone in Gaza would do it,” Trump stated. “You are going to see that all of them wish to depart,” he claimed.
The president has discovered little overseas backing for his plan, with key regional companions like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia all rejecting the proposal. Trump has urged that these nations ought to assist resettle Gazans on their territory.
Jordan has served as a humanitarian lifeline for civilians in Gaza all through the Israel-Hamas battle and already hosts tens of millions of registered Palestinian refugees.
The president informed reporters on Monday he might “conceivably” withhold billions of {dollars} in help to Egypt and Jordan to coerce them into agreeing to host Palestinians displaced from Gaza.
The president will host Jordanian King Abdullah II on the White Home on Tuesday. “I do assume he’ll take, and I feel different nations will take additionally,” Trump stated of Abdullah when requested if he would settle for ejected Palestinians. “They’ve good hearts, I feel they will take,” he added.
Hamas has rejected Trump’s Gaza plan as “absurd.” In a press release, the group stated the president’s feedback “mirror a profound ignorance about Palestine and the area. Gaza will not be a bit of actual property to be purchased and offered; it’s an inseparable a part of our occupied Palestinian land.”
Almost 400,000 individuals have already returned to the north because the starting of the ceasefire, in accordance with Gazan authorities. Palestinians interviewed by ABC Information stated they yearn to rebuild Gaza for themselves, the one place they are saying they’ve or will ever name dwelling.
Netanyahu, in the meantime, framed Trump’s proposal as “a completely completely different imaginative and prescient, a a lot better one for the state of Israel.”
Netanyahu — who met with Trump on the White Home final week — described the plan as “revolutionary, artistic — and we’re discussing it. He’s very decided to hold it out. It opens up many alternatives for us.”
A Palestinian man walks previous the particles of buildings in Gaza Metropolis’s southern al Zeitoun neighbourhood, Feb. 10, 2025.
Omar Al-qattaa/AFP by way of Getty Photos
ABC Information’ Sarah Kolinovsky, Will Gretsky and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.