President Donald Trump on Friday advocated taking a “hard stance” on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a U.S. takeover and where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants is in place.
Trump had said this week that Hamas should release all Israeli hostages in Gaza by Saturday midday or “let hell break out.”
Trump Warns Of A very Hard Stance
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow (Saturday) at 12’o clock. If it was up to me, I would take a very hard stance but I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump told media persons on Friday.
A ceasefire came into effect just before Trump returned to the presidency on January 20.
Release Of Israeli Hostages And Palestinian Prisoners
Some Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel since then.
The U.N. human rights office has described images of both emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.
Trump has reiterated his concerns about the appearances of released Israeli hostages without commenting on the state of the Palestinians.
Impact Of Israel’s Military Assault On Gaza
U.S. ally Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
The assault internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
International Condemnation
Trump has faced international condemnation for his proposal to take over Gaza and permanently displace Palestinians there.
Rights experts and the United Nations have called it a proposal for ethnic cleansing.
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