President Donald Trump addressed reporters on Tuesday and reflected on the ultimatum he issued to Hamas, warning that if they did not release all the hostages, “all hell would break loose” in Gaza.
Trump reiterated that, moving forward, the decision on how to handle Hamas rests solely with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“As you know, they weren’t going to release any more hostages, and I said there’s going to be hell to pay. And then they agreed that they were going to release the hostages that they had agreed to release, plus an extra one,” Trump stated, adding, “And so you could say that was a big difference. But I said that from that point, it’s up to Bibi Netanyahu and Israel.”
“The rest is really up to him. I may have done it differently than him. It’s not my decision, it’s his decision. But they did release all of those hostages,” Trump continued.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump had reiterated his ultimatum to Hamas, stating that ultimately it’s Israel’s call on the next steps, in consultation with him.
“I told Bibi, you do whatever you want because, you know, my statement was they’ve got to come back,” Trump told reporters. “Now, the reason I made that statement was because [Hamas] said they weren’t going to deliver, they were not going to deliver the people that they said they were going to deliver, that they agreed to deliver…When I made the statement, they delivered everybody plus an American.”
Regarding the next phase, Trump concluded, “That will be up to Israel, in consultation with me.”
{Matzav.com}