Hamas: Trump's threats complicate implementation of ceasefire agreement

Hamas said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump's threats against it and his disavowal of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the prisoner exchange "complicate matters and encourage the Israeli occupation government not to implement the agreement."

In a statement to Anadolu Agency, the movement's spokesman, Hazem Qassem, explained that "these threats complicate matters regarding the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, and encourage the occupation government not to implement the agreement."

He added: "There is a ceasefire agreement that was signed, and the United States was one of the mediating countries. The agreement stipulates the release of all prisoners over three stages, and Hamas has implemented what it was required to do in the first stage."

He stressed that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is evading entering into the second phase negotiations," calling on the US administration to "pressure the occupation to enter into the second phase as stipulated in the agreement."

On Wednesday evening, Trump addressed Hamas in a post on his own platform, Truth Social, saying: “Shalom Hamas, which means hello and goodbye (in Hebrew), and you can choose, either release all hostages now, not later, and immediately return all the bodies of the people you killed, or you are done for.”

"We are sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job and no Hamas member will be safe if it doesn't do what I say," he added.

Trump did not refer in his post to the ceasefire agreement, which includes three stages, and under the first stage, Israel received 33 of its prisoners in the Strip.

At midnight on Saturday/Sunday, the first phase of the 42-day ceasefire agreement in Gaza ended, while Israel evaded entering the second phase, which includes ending the war.

This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Hamas with hell, while the movement affirms its commitment to implementing the agreement and demands that Tel Aviv be bound by all its provisions, calling on the mediators to immediately begin negotiations for the second phase, which includes an Israeli withdrawal from the Strip and a complete cessation of the war.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backed by an American green light, wants to extend the first phase of the agreement, which entered into force on January 19, 2025, to release the largest possible number of Israeli prisoners without providing a price or completing the military and humanitarian entitlements imposed in the agreement during the past period.

With American support, Israel committed genocide in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, leaving more than 160,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.

With the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has once again closed all crossings leading to Gaza to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid, in a move aimed at using starvation as a tool of pressure on Hamas to force it to accept its dictates. Israel is also threatening other escalatory measures, leading to the resumption of the war of genocide.

Anatolia