People walk and vehicles move along a destroyed road past collapsed buildings in the west of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday — AFP NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters/AFP/AP): US President Donald Trump said on Monday that if all the hostages held in Gaza are not returned by Saturday at noon he would propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and letting "all hell break loose."
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don't take Palestinian refugees being relocated from Gaza.
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 "all 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.
The ceasefire agreement calls for staggered releases over the 42-day first phase of the deal. Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump's remark "further complicates matters".
Sisi urges Gaza reconstruction
sans 'displacing Palestinians'
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged on Tuesday the reconstruction of Gaza "without displacing Palestinians", after US President Donald Trump said he could "conceivably" halt aid to Egypt and Jordan if they refuse to take in Gazans.
During a phone call with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Sisi "stressed the necessity of starting the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip... without displacing Palestinians and in a way that ensures the preservation of their rights... to live on their land", according to a statement from his office.
Israeli soldiers traveling abroad
targeted for war crimes in Gaza
An Israeli army reservist's dream vacation in Brazil ended abruptly last month over an accusation that he committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Yuval Vagdani woke up on Jan. 4 to a flurry of missed calls from family members and Israel's Foreign Ministry with an urgent warning: A pro-Palestinian legal group had convinced a federal judge in Brazil to open a war crimes investigation for his alleged participation in the demolition of civilian homes in Gaza.
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