Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Friday issued an ultimatum to Hamas of 2200 GMT Sunday to accept his Gaza peace deal or face “all hell.” The Palestinian militants have until “Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.” In the post, Trump said “innocent Palestinians” should evacuate an unspecified area in anticipation of a potential assault on Hamas’s remaining forces. Most of Hamas’ fighters “are surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED, just waiting for me to give the word, ‘GO,’ for their lives to be quickly extinguished. As for the rest, we know where and who you are, and you will be hunted down, and killed,” Trump said.
“I am asking that all innocent Palestinians immediately leave this area of potentially great future death for safer parts of Gaza. Everyone will be well cared for by those that are waiting to help. Fortunately for Hamas, however, they will be given one last chance!”
Trump’s peace proposal after nearly two years of devastating Israeli onslaughts against Gaza has been backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but so far has not been accepted by Hamas. The deal calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages within 72 hours, Hamas’s disarmament, and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. That would be followed by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.
It was not clear what Trump’s evacuation order to Palestinian civilians meant. The Israeli military is waging an air and ground offensive on the territory’s largest urban center, from which hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee. The UN on Friday reiterated there was no safe place in Gaza and that Israel-designated zones in the south were “places of death.”
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 66,225 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
© 2024 AFP
