Gaza Truce Under Strain After Trump Warning

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Gaza ceasefire appeared increasingly fragile Tuesday after Hamas said US President Donald Trump's latest warning "further complicates" the agreement with Israel, which has so far led to five hostage-prisoner swaps.
Trump said that "hell" would break out if Hamas failed to release all Israeli hostages by the weekend.
The truce, in place since January 19, largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza but has come under strain in recent days.
International efforts to salvage it intensified, with Jordan's King Abdullah II expected to raise the issue during his meeting with trump in Washington later Tuesday.
Tensions, which initially spiked after Trump proposed last month taking over Gaza and removing its more than two million inhabitants, have grown since his latest comments.
"As far as I'm concerned, if all of the hostages aren't returned by Saturday 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," Trump said on Monday.
Trump said that the remaining hostages should be freed, "not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two".
In the five hostage-prisoner swaps until now, 16 Israeli hostages have been freed in batches in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump's remark "further complicates matters".
"Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties and this is the only way to return" the hostages, he told AFP.
"The language of threats has no value and further complicates matters."
UN chief Antonio Guterres urged Hamas to proceed with the hostage release set for Saturday.
"We must avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza that would lead to immense tragedy," he said on X.
Holding Israeli flags and pictures of their loved ones, several families of hostages protested in front of Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
"We can't afford another arm wrestling between the sides. There is a deal. Go for it!" said Zahiro, whose uncle, Avraham Munder, died in captivity in Gaza.
In Gaza, concerns over the fate of the ceasefire were prevalent.
"I pray that the ceasefire holds, but there are no guarantees because the ruling faction in Israel wants war, and I believe there is also a faction within Hamas that wants war," said Adnan Qassem, 60, from Deir el-Balah.
"The people are the ones who suffer and pay the price."
Trump's threat came hours after Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said the hostage release scheduled for Saturday was postponed.
It accused Israel of failing to meet its commitments under the agreement, including on aid, and cited the deaths of three Gazans at the weekend.
But the group said "the door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies".
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called Hamas's move a "complete violation" of the ceasefire deal, and ordered troops to be ready for "any possible scenario in Gaza".
Israel's security cabinet was in session on Tuesday to decide on how to respond to Hamas's warning, an Israeli official told AFP.
Talks on a second phase were supposed to start on day 16 of the truce, but Israel had refused to send negotiators to Doha.
In his meeting with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, King Abdullah II reiterated "Jordan's firm positions on the Palestinian issue and the need to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution".
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also said during a call with the Danish prime minister that reconstruction should start in Gaza but "without displacing Palestinians and in a way that ensures the preservation of their rights... to live on their land".
Trump told Fox News that Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza.
"I'm talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it'll be years before you could ever -- it's not habitable," he said.
Asked if they would have the right to return, Trump said: "No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing."
For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the "Nakba", or catastrophe -- the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation in 1948.

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