By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats against Palestinians constituted support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back out of the Gaza ceasefire and intensify the siege of Gazans.
Trump demanded in a social media post on Wednesday that Hamas “release all of the hostages now, not later,” including the remains of dead hostages, “or it is OVER for you”.
Towards the end of that statement, Trump addressed the “people of Gaza” and said “you are DEAD” if hostages continued to be held in the Palestinian enclave.
Human rights advocates and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese condemned Trump’s rhetoric on warnings to the population of Gaza, saying it amounted to encouraging collective punishment, which is illegal under international law.
Trump’s threats coincided with news that a U.S.
envoy had held secret talks with Hamas, apparently departing from a decades-old U.S. policy of not negotiating with the Islamist Palestinian faction deemed an extremist organisation by Washington.
“Trump’s repeated threats against our people represent support to Netanyahu to evade the agreement and tighten the siege and starvation against our people,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said in a text message to Reuters.
“The best track to release the remaining Israeli prisoners is by… going into the second phase (of the ceasefire) and compelling it (Israel) to adhere to the agreement signed under the sponsorship of mediators,” he said.
The Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect in January calls for the remaining hostages to be freed in a second phase, during which final plans would be negotiated for an end to the war.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended on Saturday, and Israel has since imposed a total blockade on all goods entering the enclave, demanding that Hamas free remaining hostages without beginning the negotiations to end the Gaza war.
Palestinians say the blockade could lead to starvation among the 2.3 million people living in Gaza’s ruins.
Trump made his new threats after a White House meeting on Wednesday with a group of hostages who had been released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” he said in his social media post.
“Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”
Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have repeatedly called on Hamas to release hostages.
“It (Trump’s statement) is implying or suggesting that using military force and punishing the entire population of Gaza would be permissible in light of the unlawful decision of armed groups to continue to hold Israeli civilians hostage,” Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an interview.
In a televised speech, Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said Israel’s threats to resume the fighting or tighten the Gaza blockade would not secure the release of hostages, adding that the group was “ready for all possibilities”.
“The enemy’s threats in war and blockade would only bring them disappointment and will not lead to the release of its prisoners (hostages),” said Abu Ubaida.
“We tell all those concerned that we have signs of life of all the remaining living hostages of the enemy and any escalation on Gaza will most likely result in the killing of some enemy prisoners (hostages) as in many previous cases.”
Israel has accused Hamas of killing hostages the militant group said had died in Israeli military strikes on Gaza.
Fighting has been halted since January 19 and Hamas has released 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Israeli authorities believe fewer than half of the remaining 59 hostages are still alive.
Showing the fragility of the ceasefire, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed one man in eastern Gaza City on Thursday.
Israel’s military said several suspects were identified planting a bomb in the ground near where the forces operated and they were struck to remove the threat.
Israel’s assault on the enclave has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
It has also internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
The assault began after Hamas-led Islamist fighters raided southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
TALKING TO HAMAS
In an open letter sent to the media, senior Hamas official Basem Naim urged Trump to consider meeting with freed Palestinian prisoners to show some balance after he had met with freed hostages.
Naim said there are currently around 9,500 Palestinians in 23 Israeli jails “deprived of basic rights, denial of family visits, and ongoing psychological and physical torture.”
Israel also held the remains of 665 Palestinians, including some dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, Naim added.
On Thursday, Gazans criticised Trump’s latest remarks, which followed his widely condemned call last month for Palestinian residents of the tiny coastal enclave to be displaced elsewhere and for the territory to be developed as a “Middle East Riviera.”
“(Trump’s) work (should be) more to spread peace… by exchanging hostages between the two parties, and not to throw around threats, blame and intimidation at the people of the Gaza Strip, who are suffering… as a result of this war,” said Ahmed, a resident of Khan Younis in the Palestinian enclave.
Egyptian security officials told Reuters on Thursday that Egyptian and Qatari mediators attended talks between the Trump envoy and Hamas.
U.S.
hostage affairs envoy Adam Boehler has the authority to talk directly with Hamas, the White House said when asked about the discussions.
Boehler and Hamas officials met in Doha in recent weeks, two sources briefed on the negotiations said.
It was not clear who represented Hamas.
Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday it had nothing to add to a brief statement issued on Wednesday night that said Israel had “expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas”.
The two Egyptian security officials who spoke to Reuters said Hamas had insisted during the talks on sticking to the original phased ceasefire agreement.
The Egyptian sources said the talks ended in a positive spirit, indicating the sides might soon move towards negotiating the second phase of the deal.
Israel wants to prolong the ceasefire, securing the release of hostages but without reaching a final agreement with Hamas on ending the war.
Hamas wants to move to the second stage of the ceasefire where the sides would hash out an end to the fighting.
Egypt, according to the two Egyptian sources, stressed the need to uphold the agreement till the end of the war, saying this would facilitate implementation of a Cairo reconstruction plan for Gaza that Arab leaders endorsed at a summit on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Mohamed Ezz, Yomna Ehab, Ahmed Tolba, Jana Choukeir and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Peter Graff, Gareth Jones, Frances Kerry and Lincoln Feast.)
