US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would take a hard stance on Gaza on Saturday, but added that he is not sure what Israel will do.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen at 12 o’clock [on Saturday]. If it was up to me, I’d take a very hard stance. I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter at the Oval Office.
“Now I understand they've totally changed. Hamas has totally changed. They want to release hostages now again. But this started by them saying ‘we're not going to release the hostages as we said we were.’ I said, ‘Good. You have till 12 o'clock on Saturday to do it.’ And we didn't hear anything. Then all of a sudden, two days ago, they said, ‘No, we've decided we're gonna release the hostages,’” continued Trump.
“I actually think they should release all of the hostages. As bad as [the ones who have been released] looked, the ones that follow probably will look a lot worse,” the President said. “I think they're sending out their most healthy…they probably didn't want to release, but they obviously changed their mind.”
His comments came ahead of the scheduled release of Sagui Dekel-Chen (36), Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov (29), and Yair Horn (46) as part of the hostage deal with Hamas.
Earlier this week, Trump issued a warning to Hamas and said that if it were up to him, the ceasefire and hostage deal should be cancelled if Hamas does not release all the hostages.
“As far as I'm concerned, if all of the hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12:00 o'clock, I think it's an appropriate time, I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” stated Trump.
“I'd say they ought to be returned by 12:00 o'clock on Saturday. And if they're not returned, all of them, not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two, Saturday at 12:00 o'clock. And after that, I would say all hell is going to break out,” he added.
Trump also acknowledged that such a decision would be up to Israel, saying, “I'm speaking for myself. Israel can override it.”
Trump's statement came hours after the spokesperson for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obaida, announced that the terrorist organization would postpone the next release of hostages, claiming that Israel violated the terms of the agreement.
Ultimately, Hamas on Thursday issued an official announcement confirming the continuation of the ceasefire deal as was initially agreed upon, and adding that additional hostages are expected to be released on Saturday.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)