12/4/2024–|Last updated: 12/4/202412:20 AM (Mecca time)
US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of “hell in the Middle East” if detainees in the Gaza Strip are not released before his inauguration sparked mixed reactions, as some warned of its dangerous repercussions on the Strip, while extremist members of the Israeli government cheered him.
Trump said on Monday that if the detainees in Gaza were not released before his inauguration on January 20, there would be “hell” in the Middle East, he said.
Trump said, in a post on social media, “The officials will receive blows more severe than any person has received in the long and rich history of the United States of America… Release the prisoners now.”
Message to Netanyahu
In response to Trump’s post, Basem Naim, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demolished all efforts aimed at reaching a deal that included exchanging Israeli detainees for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Reuters quoted him as saying that, “Based on this, we understand that Trump’s message is directed first to Netanyahu and his government to end this evil game.”
Serious repercussions
For his part, political analyst in Gaza, Ramez Mughni, believed that Trump’s threat was directed at Hamas and its supporter Iran, and warned that this threat would encourage Israel to expel the Palestinians from vast areas of Gaza as well as annex the occupied West Bank.
Reuters quoted him as saying, “These statements have serious repercussions on the Israeli war in Gaza and the West Bank. Meaning that Israel will take these statements as a preliminary green light from the new administration, to do everything it deems appropriate to achieve Netanyahu’s real goals from the war, which is to complete the plan to displace the population of the Gaza Strip.” And annexation of the West Bank or large parts of it.
shock
Trump’s threat was a shock to the residents of Gaza, who are subjected to genocide and forced displacement by the Israeli occupation, as a Gazan citizen named Muhammad Dahlan said that he was shocked by what Trump said.
Muhammad, who was forced to flee his home because of the Israeli war, like hundreds of thousands of Gazans, and who desperately longs for its end, said, “Trump’s statements came to constitute a new shock for us here in the Gaza Strip.”
He added, “We hoped that the new administration would bring a breakthrough and a solution to what is happening here in Gaza by stopping the aggression and ending the months of detestable war that destroyed everything here in the Strip.”
He continued, “But it seems that the American administration was completely in line with the Israeli administration and with Benjamin Netanyahu in particular, and that more punitive measures appear to be awaiting the Gaza Strip under the new administration.”
Israeli praise
The Israeli position on Trump’s threat was different, of course, as ministers in the Israeli government praised the threat he made, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some ministers in his government thanked the American president-elect.
Netanyahu said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting yesterday, Tuesday, “President Trump focused his words on the horse, on Hamas, and not on the Israeli government, as is usual (in other places).”
Extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “Trump’s statement made it clear to everyone who is right and who is wrong,” as he put it.
He added, “This is the way to recover the hostages. Increase the pressure and losses on Hamas and its supporters, and defeat them, instead of surrendering to their ridiculous demands,” he said.
The families of the hostages expressed their gratitude, and the Hostage Families Forum said, “It has become clear to everyone now. The time has come. They must be returned to their homes now.”
Israeli intransigence
The Hamas movement announced – the day before yesterday, Monday – that 33 Israeli prisoners held by it had been killed since October 2023, and confirmed that most of them were killed by the Israeli army’s bombing of various areas of the Gaza Strip.
The movement said – in a video clip it posted on its page on the Telegram platform – that some of their traces were lost due to “the criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his stubbornness.”
The movement warned “that the continuation of the (Israeli) aggression will raise the death toll of enemy prisoners.”
Israel estimates that 101 prisoners are being held in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas calls for an end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as part of any agreement to release the remaining prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the war will continue until Hamas is eliminated and it does not pose a threat to Israel.
With absolute American support, Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 149,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly.
