“There is no fixed timetable – every person recovers at their own pace. It is important that they recover slowly,” she told reporters on Tuesday. She added that many hostages had lost weight.
US President Donald Trump has threatened Hamas with violent disarmament if the Islamists refuse to lay down their weapons as agreed in the ceasefire agreement. “If they don’t put down their arms, we will disarm them,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently,” he added.
Trump did not elaborate on whether US forces would be involved in the possible disarmament of Hamas that he mentioned. The Islamist Palestinian organization has so far spoken out against disarmament, even though it is a central part of the second phase of Trump’s 20-point plan for a ceasefire and a new peace order.
Regarding the agreements reached in the ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, Trump said: “I spoke to Hamas and said, ‘You’re going to lay down your arms.’ And they said, ‘Yes, sir, we will lay down our arms’.”
Hamas wants to hand over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to Israel this evening. The handover should begin at 10 p.m. local time (9 p.m. CEST), says a representative familiar with the process to the Reuters news agency. Israel had previously announced that the Rafah border crossing would remain closed for the time being and that aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip would be reduced. This was intended to increase pressure on Hamas to hand over the bodies of the hostages.
After the end of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the situation remains unstable. While aid workers warn of a humanitarian catastrophe, Hamas secures its power base. Read more about it here.
According to a media report, the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was made possible by an extraordinary meeting with top US representatives. US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met Hamas’s highest representative abroad, Chalil al-Haja. This was reported by the US news site “Axios”, citing people familiar with the meeting.
In the talks, Hamas was primarily concerned that Israel would continue the war against them after the last hostages were released from the Gaza Strip. The aim of the unusual meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, last week was to allay Hamas’ concerns, Axios reported.
