Hamas says Trump's threats encourage Netanyahu to evade Gaza ceasefire deal

Hamas said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats against Palestinians constituted support for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to back out of the Gaza ceasefire and intensify the siege of the Palestinians in the enclave, Reuters has reported.

Trump demanded in a social media post on Wednesday that Hamas must “release all of the hostages now, not later,” including the remains of dead hostages, “or it is OVER for you.”

His threats came on the day that there was news that a Trump envoy has held secret talks with Hamas, signalling a departure from a decades-old US policy of not negotiating with the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement that is designated as a terrorist organisation by Washington.

“Trump’s repeated threats against our people represent support to Netanyahu to evade the agreement and tightens the siege and starvation against our people,” said Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua in a text message to Reuters. “The best track to release the remaining Israeli prisoners is by… going into the second phase and compelling it [Israel] to adhere to the agreement signed under the sponsorship of mediators.”

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, including humanitarian aid, entering Gaza, demanding that Hamas release remaining hostages without beginning the negotiations to end the war. Palestinians say that 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!”

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Fighting in Gaza has been halted since 19 January and Hamas has released 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israeli authorities believe that fewer than half of the remaining 59 hostages are still alive.

Showing the fragility of the ceasefire, Palestinian health officials said that an Israeli air strike killed one man in eastern Gaza City on Thursday. According to the Israeli military, several suspects were identified planting a bomb in the ground near where its forces operated and the strike removed the threat.

Israel’s “plausible genocide” in the enclave has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians. It began after a Hamas-led cross-border incursion on 7 October, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed — many of them by the Israel Defence Forces enforcing the controversial “Hannibal Doctrine” — and taking 251 hostages.

On Thursday, Palestinians in Gaza criticised Trump’s latest remarks, which followed his call last month for the residents of the tiny coastal enclave to be resettled elsewhere and for the territory to be developed as a “Riviera of the Middle East”.

“[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 enclave.

Egyptian security officials told Reuters on Thursday that Egyptian and Qatari mediators attended talks between the Trump envoy and Hamas. US 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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that 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.

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 sources, stressed the need to uphold the ceasefire agreement until the end of the war, saying that this would facilitate implementation of a Cairo reconstruction plan for Gaza that Arab leaders endorsed at a summit on Tuesday.

The Egyptian sources said talks ended in a positive spirit, indicating that the sides may soon move towards negotiating the second phase of the deal.

READ: White House opposes Arab leaders’ Gaza reconstruction plan