Incoming President Donald Trump warned “all hell will break out” if the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas slated to go into effect Sunday morning collapses.
Less than 48 hours before his return to the White House, Trump was asked whether he believed the hostages would be freed by the terror group under the three-stage accord the two sides signed off on earlier this week, with the first captives scheduled to be released Sunday afternoon.
“We’re going to see very soon, and it better hold,” Trump told NBC News.
Trump shared with the outlet that he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “‘keep doing what you have to do.’”
“‘This has to end. We want it to end, but to keep doing what has to be done,’” he told the Israeli leader.
He added the two are set to meet “fairly shortly,” but declined to discuss further details.
US Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) echoed Trump’s warning for Israel and Hamas to fulfill the first phase of the agreement, which would see the terror group release 33 hostages over a six-week truce period in exchange for over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
“President Trump made it clear that ‘all hell will break out if those hostages aren’t back’ and it is in the best interest of all involved that all hostages be released and the terms of the cease-fire be met,” she told The Post.
Last week, both outgoing President Biden and Trump took credit after the news emerged Israel and Hamas had come to an agreement on the three-phase deal, which the current administration had been pushing for months to no avail.
Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has been credited as crucial in the breakthrough.
One senior Biden official previously told Reuters Witkoff’s meeting with Netanyahu last week effectively “shifted everything into motion.”
The tenuous deal, however, was not popular with all Israelis.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotric, who voted against the deal, slammed the accord as “terrible” and said he couldn’t serve in a government that “will stop the war and not continue until complete victory over Hamas,” according to the Times of Israel.
Israel’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced Saturday several of its ministers would tender letters of resignation Sunday from the nation’s government, according to The Jerusalem Post.
A Trump spokesperson didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Jon Levine
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