TEHRAN - Donald Trump has issued a threat to Hamas and the people of Gaza as part of a demand to release all Israeli captives in the territory.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump renewed his warning that there would be “hell to pay” if the captives were not released.

“This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance,” Trump wrote.

“Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision.”

Based on the January 15 ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel which went into effect on January 19, the Israeli captives and the Palestinian prisoners are going to be released in three stages.

In the first stage of the hostage deal, 33 Israeli captives (25 living and eight dead captives) and 1,900 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged, and now is the time to move to the second stage, which would involve the release of the remaining living Israeli captives in Gaza in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners. In the second stage, a permanent ceasefire must also be established, and Israeli forces must make a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

If the process goes ahead, all remaining bodies of dead hostages must also be returned in the third stage, and the reconstruction of Gaza get started.

However, Israel is violating the ceasefire agreement with the strong backing of the United States. Israel’s refusal to move to the second stage and Trump’s reckless threats in this regard are astonishingly surprising.

The Trump team says the president is seeking peace! But what is noticeable is quite the opposite. He is openly threatening to create a “hell” in Gaza. His words are full of contradictions.

Gaza has already been turned into a hell during the nearly 16 months of Israel’s barbaric war on the enclave. What else can Trump’s military conduct which would not lead to mass slaughter of the Gazans. 

Trump himself has acknowledged that Gaza has been turned into rubble. What else he wants to do.

If the purpose is to annihilate resistance fighters, it is not achievable. Israel, using highly modern American weapons and jet fighters, left no stone unturned to exterminate resistance fighters, all to no avail. To force Gazans into submission, Israel did everything unimaginable. Even hospitals, schools, and shelter houses did not remain safe from savage attacks.

Just a pretext

In violation of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has already blocked international aid to Gaza to the extent that, according to reports, the price of bread has increased about 100-fold.

It blocked the entry of aid shipments to Gaza on Sunday, hours after the first phase of its ceasefire deal expired. The blockage has raised fears of hunger and more hardships during the fasting month of Ramadan.

Based on the first stage of the truce agreement, hundreds of aid lorries had to be allowed into Gaza each day.

“Unseen intensity”

Concurrent with Trump’s threat, Israel’s so-called Defense Minister Israel Katz has threatened to restart the war on Gaza with “unseen intensity” if efforts to release Israeli captives fail.

The words uttered by Trump and Katz are primarily intended to put pressure on Arab countries to stop their opposition to the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza and leave the coastal enclave for Israel and the United States.

Now, Israel and Trump are angry with the counterproposal by the Arab leaders to reconstruct Gaza. Both Israel and the U.S. have openly rejected the plan.

On February 10, Trump had announced that he wanted to “take over the Gaza Strip” and “own it”.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce has said the plan put forward by Arab leaders for Gaza was not seen as “adequate” by the Trump administration.

“The approach now in this dynamic is that it has to be a new approach, and that is what President Trump has said from the beginning, that we’ve got to think differently.”

While the entire world, including the Arab world, the Muslim states, the American and Israeli allies, and international bodies reject the relocation plan and the Gazans themselves say they are ready to die rather than leave Gaza, the only remaining option for Trump in his social media post to own Gaza is to nuke Gaza!!!         

All other options have been tested and failed to yield results.