Trump suggests letting 'hell break out' if Hamas doesn't free hostages by Saturday afternoon
Militant group said earlier it will stop releasing hostages until further notice, citing ceasefire violations
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Hamas should release all hostages it is holding in Gaza by midday Saturday or he would propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and let "hell break out."
Trump cautioned that Israel might want to override him on the issue and said he might speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But in a wide-ranging session with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump expressed frustration with the condition of the last group of hostages freed by Hamas and by militant group's Monday announcement that it would halt the planned release of Israeli hostages until further notice over what it said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.
"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.
He said he wanted the hostages released en masse, instead of a few at a time. "We want them all back."
Trump also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don't take Palestinian refugees being relocated from Gaza. He is to meet Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday.
Hamas was set to release some Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and other Palestinians held in Israeli detention, as had happened over the past three weeks.
The group's military wing spokesperson Abu Ubaida said that since the ceasefire came into effect on Jan. 19, Israel had delayed allowing displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza and targeted Gazans with military shelling and gunfire.
Hamas has also accused Israel of dragging its feet on allowing aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the agreement, a charge Israel has rejected as untrue.
Confusion over takeover talk
The comments came on a day of some confusion over Trump's proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza once the fighting stops.
He said Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, contradicting his own officials who had suggested they would only be relocated temporarily.
In an excerpt of an interview with Fox News channel's Bret Baier broadcast on Monday, Trump said he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying the U.S. 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.
Shock with prior 'Riviera' comment
In a shock announcement on Tuesday, after meeting Netanyahu in Washington, Trump proposed both resettling Gaza's 2.2 million Palestinians and that the U.S. take control of the seaside enclave, 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.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump's statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was "irresponsible."
"Such plans are capable of igniting the region," he told Reuters on Monday.
Netanyahu, who praised the proposal, suggested Palestinians would be allowed to return. "They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza," he said on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will depart later this week for his first visit to the Middle East in the office, said on Thursday that Palestinians would have to "live somewhere else in the interim," during reconstruction, although he declined to explicitly rule out their permanent displacement.
The U.S. 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.
Israel's Arab neighbours, including Egypt and Jordan, have said any plan to transfer Palestinians from their land would destabilize the region.