President Donald Trump hinted at a new deadline for Hamas to return the rest of the bodies of dead hostages to Israel, or else face “action” from countries involved with the Gaza peace deal.
“Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action. Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely,” Trump said in a statement on Saturday.
As part of the Trump-brokered peace deal, Hamas was supposed to release all living hostages and the remains of the dead ones that they have held since its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. They have largely reneged on the latter obligation, only returning 15 of the 28 remains.
The threat from Trump is the latest from both the president and his administration, as it looks to keep the ceasefire intact after it was violated by Hamas last weekend.
During a visit to Israel earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance warned that “if Hamas does not co-operate, it will be obliterated.”
Trump also recently suggested U.S. allies in the Middle East are willing to enter Gaza “with a heavy force and ‘straighten our Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly.”
Still, Trump has held out hope that such military action will be unnecessary.
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Earlier on Saturday, he expressed confidence that the ceasefire will remain in effect, while also pinning the blame on Hamas if it collapses again.
“I think it will hold,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to Malaysia. “Well, if it doesn’t hold, that would be Hamas. Hamas will be not hard to take care of very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their word on something so I think it’s going to hold and if it doesn’t then they’ll have a very big problem.”
