WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY 'LET ALL HELL BREAK LOOSE'?

Trump threatens to cancel ceasefire deal and 'let all hell break loose' if all hostages are not released by noon on Saturday

 

By Melissa Koenig 

Daily Mail

Feb 10, 2025

President Donald Trump threatened Hamas that he would cancel Israel's ceasefire on Gaza

 

President Donald Trump threatened Hamas that he would cancel Israel's ceasefire on Gaza and 'let all hell break loose' if all of the 76 remaining hostages are not released by noon on Saturday.

The president made the comments as he was signing executive orders in the Oval Office Monday evening, after the terror group announced it was scrapping a scheduled hostage release.

But he noted that the decision to end the ceasefire - which went into effect on January 20 - ultimately lies with the Israeli government.

'I'm speaking for myself,' he said, according to the Times of Israel. 'Israel can override it.' 

As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas vowed to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and an end to the hostilities.

Three more hostages were set to be released on Saturday, but Hamas has claimed that Israel has not lived up to its side of the deal, citing recent Israeli shelling and gunfire in Gaza, as well as an insufficient flow of aid.

It added that it had announced the delay five days before the scheduled release to allow time for negotiations. 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, though, said any delay in the release of hostages would represent a 'complete violation' of the ceasefire agreement, and warned that Israel's military would assume its 'highest level of readiness,' the Washington Post reports. 

 

Hamas announced Monday it was scrapping a scheduled release of three more hostages

 

At the same time, however, a group representing the families of the hostages said it has 'urgently requested' help from other countries to restore and implement the deal.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum pointed to the emaciated appearances of Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, who were released on Saturday.

They appeared to be in worse condition than the 18 other hostages that were previously freed under the truce. 

There are 17 more hostages that Hamas had agreed to release, and a total of 73 still being held in Gaza - though Israeli officials fear many may be dead.

'Recent evidence from those released, as well as the shocking conditions of the hostages released last Saturday, leaves no room for doubt - time is of the essence,' The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

The three released hostages' appearances also apparently made Trump uncomfortable, telling reporters on Sunday he was losing patience with the ceasefire deal after seeing the footage of Ben Ami, Sharabi and Levy being led on stage.

'They look like Holocaust survivors,' he said of the freed hostages. 'They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated.

 

Concerns about the hostages grew after  Or Levy, Eliyahu Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami (above) appeared gaunt on Saturday

Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas vowed to release 33 Israeli hostages. Ofer Kalderon was reunited with his children at Sheba hospital in Ramat Gan on February 1

In exchange for the hostages, Israel vowed to end its war in the Gaza Strip

 

'I don't know how much longer we can take that... at some point we're going to lose our patience.' 

The freed hostages have since claimed they were hung by their feet, throttled with a rope and branded.

They also said they were deliberately starved, held in a room inside a tunnel so tiny they could not move nor stand and were left struggling for air. 

After days without food or water they were handed rotten pita bread which they were made to share with others. 

'We were treated like animals,' one said on being released.

The terrorists also allegedly subjected the men to barbaric interrogation sessions over 491 days in captivity.

 

Freed Palestinian prisoners are greeted by a crowd as they arrive in the Gaza Strip after being released from an Israeli prison, Saturday Feb. 8

Hamas and Israel were due to start discussing a second phase of the ceasefire on February 3

 

Yet negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire - which would allow for more hostages to be released appear to be slow moving, even after Israeli forces withdrew Sunday from a Gaza corridor in the latest commitment to the truce.

They were due to start on February 3, but it is unclear if any progress has been made.

Apparently adding to the concerns were Trump's remarks that the United States would buy Gaza and turn it into the 'Riviera of the Middle East'. 

He insisted that neighboring Arab countries would agree to take the Palestinians currently living in the Gaza Strip - though Egypt and Jordan have long expressed reservations about the idea.

The Palestinian Authority also insisted last month that it should be the sole governing power in Gaza after the war, and expressed dismay at the proposal of moving Gazans from their homeland.

Still, Trump said Palestinians would have no right of return to Gaza under his US takeover plan, describing his proposal in excerpts of an interview released Monday as a 'real estate development for the future.'