WASHINGTON, Oct 15 : Echoing the anger in Israel, US President Donald Trump has warned Hamas of violent retaliation if it fails to disarm and release the remains of all the 24 hostages, still being held in the Strip.
“I spoke to Hamas, and I said, ‘You’re going to disarm, right?’ ‘Yes, sir. We’re going to disarm.’ – That’s what they told me. They will disarm or we will disarm them,” Trump told media at the White House.
He later clarified that this message was passed on through his “people,” apparently referencing his top two aides — US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kusher — rather than in a direct conversation with the terror group, according to Israeli reports.
Witkoff and Kushner, with Trump’s approval, met last week in Sharm el-Sheikh with Hamas’s top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya to assure him that Washington would ensure that Jerusalem honour its end of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, for ending the war in Gaza, and hold them accountable should it not.
The US-brokered ceasefire went into effect on Friday, and started off with a promising development when Hamas released all the 20 living hostages on Monday, as per the terms of the deal.
However, the deal hit an impasse after the terror group did not repatriate the remains of the 28 deceased hostages as required, but instead only handed over four of them on Monday, stating that it did not know their location owing to the rubble in the Strip, following the two-year-long war.
Israel, had earlier expressed massive displeasure over this and amid surging anger from the families of the hostages, and discontent in the political, and military circles, decided to halt further implementation of its side of the deal.
The IDF blocked the Rafah border crossing, thus greatly restricting all aid to the Strip, as well as held off on releasing any more Palestinian terrorists, until Hamas delivers the 24 bodies, warning of stern retaliation if it does not.
(UNI)
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