A Hamas official said on Tuesday Israeli hostages can be brought home from Gaza only if a fragile ceasefire is respected, dismissing the “language of threats” after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would “let hell break out” if they were not freed.
Hamas has begun releasing some hostages gradually but said on Monday it would not free any more until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the terms with several deadly shootings as well as hold-ups of some aid deliveries in Gaza.
Trump, a close ally of Israel, said in response that Hamas should release all the hostages held by the Palestinian militant group by midday on Saturday or he would propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which took effect on January 19.
“Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the (Israeli) prisoners. The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told newsmen.
Israel denies holding back aid supplies and says it has fired on people who disregard warnings not to approach Israeli troop positions, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel remained determined to get all the hostages back.
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“We will continue to take determined and ruthless action until we return all of our hostages – the living and the deceased,” he said following military confirmation of the death of one more Israeli during the Hamas-led attack that started the Gaza war 16 months ago.
Trump has enraged Palestinians and Arab leaders and upended decades of U.S. policy that endorsed a possible two-state solution in the region by trying to impose his vision of Gaza, which has been devastated by an Israeli military offensive and is short of food, water and shelter, and in need of foreign aid.
He has said the United States should take over Gaza and move out its more than 2 million Palestinian residents so that the enclave can be turned into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
The forcible displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime banned by the 1949 Geneva conventions.
(Editor: Oloyede Oworu)
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