With ceasefire deal teetering, Trump says Hamas must release all hostages or ‘all bets are off’
Hostage families and their advocates have increasingly appealed to Trump to get their loved ones freed
A demonstrator raises a placard during a protest calling for the release of hostages held captive in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Feb. 8 2025. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — A poll this week showed that across Israel’s fractious society, there’s at least one thing most people agree on: The ceasefire and hostage release deal happened thanks to President Donald Trump.
Nearly three-quarters of Israelis credit the president for pushing the deal through, including majorities of Israeli Jews, Arabs and the country’s left, center and right. So far, the deal between Israel and Hamas has lasted about three weeks and seen 21 hostages go free.
Now, with the truce teetering, Trump has issued a new threat designed to keep the ceasefire going. “If all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 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 told reporters in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
He emphasized that he was unsatisfied with the slow pace of hostage releases so far, which Israel and Hamas agreed to. “I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday, and if they’re not returned — all of them, not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two,” Trump said. “Saturday at 12 o’clock, and after that, I would say, all hell is going to break out.”
And in contrast to a different ultimatum that Trump issued before he was inaugurated, which his Middle East negotiator reportedly said applied to both Israel and Hamas, he was explicit that the target of his wrath was Hamas. Asked for specifics about his threat, Trump said, “You’ll find out, and they’ll find out — Hamas will find out what I mean.”
Trump’s comments come as the delicate truce teeters: Hamas — perhaps fearing that it will lose power — has said it will delay the next release of hostages. And Netanyahu has reportedly refused to negotiate the second stage of the deal, perhaps fearing the collapse of his right-wing coalition. Meanwhile, dire reports of the hostages’ treatment have emerged, further raising the alarm among Israelis.
With both parties seemingly reluctant to maintain their ceasefire, families of hostages and their supporters have appealed to Trump.
“We need to do more, and I’m turning directly to President Trump and to Mr. Witkoff,” Jon Polin, the father of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said in a video this weekend alongside his wife, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, referring to negotiator Steve Witkoff. “You have shown that you are the only ones who have been able to get this situation moving forward… Let’s think bigger and faster: All 76 hostages, out this week. End of war.”
The Goldberg-Polins are among several relatives and friends of hostages who have appealed publicly and directly to Trump to free the rest of the hostages. The messages appear to be born of the idea that Trump has the ability, dealmaking savvy and desire to see the region move on from the war and hostage crisis — though some Israeli voices are also blaming his proposals for endangering a fragile truce with his shocking proposal for the United States to take over Gaza.
“I want to take a moment to thank you, President Trump,” Karina Ariev, a hostage who was freed on Jan. 24, said in a video message on Sunday, switching from Hebrew to English to address the president. “You made this deal possible. Right now we need strong leadership to help us move from phase A to phase B, and I truly believe you have the power and determination to make this happen.”
Hostage families have been lobbying the president — first, Joe Biden, and more recently Trump — since the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden and Trump both met personally with hostage families.
But the calls have taken on more urgency in recent days, and especially on Monday, after Hamas announced its intention to blow up the deal. That announcement — blaming Israel for violations of the truce — came after three hostages emerged from Hamas captivity in visibly poor health. The images elicited a frustrated comment from Trump.
“I watched the hostages come back today,” he said on Air Force One on Saturday. “And they looked like Holocaust survivors, they were in horrible condition. … I don’t know how much longer we can take that.”
It is against that backdrop that hostage families are lobbying him to keep pushing for the captives’ release. Idit Ohel, mother of hostage Alon Ohel, whose 24th birthday was Monday, also addressed Trump in English at a rally to “do everything in your power to ensure that this deal continues.”
But some Israeli commentators are also blaming Trump for hurting the deal rather than helping it by proposing a U.S. takeover of Gaza, a policy that would preclude Hamas’ continued control of the territory. Netanyahu and Hamas, wrote the journalist Avi Issacharoff, both want to end the deal for their own political benefit — and Trump may have allowed them to do so.
“The assumption was that the only one who could prevent the deal’s collapse before the end of the first phase was the new American president, Donald Trump,” Issacharoff wrote in Ynet. “But Trump, like Trump, proved how unpredictable he is, and unsheathed from his waist a very dubiously realistic plan.”
The proposal to depopulate Gaza and have the United States take over, Issacharoff added, “offered Hamas and the government of Israel the ladder they were looking for in order to climb down from the tree of phase two.”
Still, some Israelis still see Trump as the last best hope of the hostage deal. The journalist Amir Tibon, who survived Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, wrote in Haaretz that American Jewish groups should step up their lobbying of Trump and persuade him to remain committed to the deal — even if Netanyahu wants it to fall apart.
“What is needed now is strong pressure to make sure this deal is honored and implemented. And right now, the Israeli government is clear in its intention to break the deal and abandon the remaining hostages in the tunnels,” Tibon wrote.
Any organization that has made the hostages part of its agenda over the past year needs to take bold action, right away,” he continued. “The hostages need your voices. Only Trump can secure their release – and he needs to hear this from Jewish-American leaders.”
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