Trump had stated this week that Hamas should release all Israeli hostages in the besieged enclave by Saturday midday or “let hell break out.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow (Saturday) at 12’o clock. If it was up to me, I would take a very hard stance but I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
A ceasefire went into effect just before Trump returned to the presidency on January 20.
Some Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel since then.
The United Nations human rights office has described images of both emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.
Trump on Friday reiterated his concerns about the appearances of released Israeli hostages without commenting on the state of the Palestinians.
US ally Israel’s military onslaught on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes. The offensive internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.
Trump has faced international condemnation for his proposal to take over Gaza and permanently displace Palestinians there. Rights experts and the United Nations have called it a proposal for ethnic cleansing.
