U.S. President Donald Trump’s February 10 final warning to Hamas that all remaining Israeli hostages must be released by 12 noon on Saturday, February 15, otherwise “all hell is going to break out,” is his most specific threat to the Iran-backed terror group to date and represents a climax of numerous recent warnings. Trump’s dramatic “hell to pay” threat to Hamas, part of his overhaul plan for Gaza, has sent shock waves across the Middle East but did not come as a surprise to Israel. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been closely coordinated on an overall strategy since the Washington summit on February 4.
Trump’s statement to reporters as he signed Executive Orders in the Oval Office on Monday, February 10, also reflects that he is acutely aware of Hamas’s long-war strategy of keeping certain hostages while releasing others, employing psychological warfare to prevent implementation of the ceasefire deal’s second stage.
The president’s warning is also supported by the fact that a Hamas delegation led by Mohammad Ismail Darwish, the head of Hamas’s leadership council, met senior Iranian officials including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday, February 8 in Tehran. The IRGC has been mentoring and directing Hamas’s political, media, and psychological warfare for more than a decade. It was most influenced by former IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by a U.S. drone in 2020 at Trump’s instruction.
Trump’s latest warning to Hamas comes after he announced his plan to relocate Gaza’s two million residents and rehabilitate the Gaza Strip. The president’s statements have appeared to move from declared intentions to a clear warning. The reasons seem clear enough. On February 9, 2025, while on Air Force One, Trump shared his shock with reporters at witnessing the release and the emaciated condition of the three recently released hostages Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy, whom Hamas paraded mercilessly on stage in front of a massive jeering crowd.
Trump emphasized to reporters that the spectacle reminded him of images of former Holocaust survivors. In a thinly veiled warning to Hamas, that he repeated three times to express his palpable disgust, he said, “I don’t know how long we can take that.”
Those who have followed Trump’s initial warnings to Hamas at the White House press conference on February 4 together with Netanyahu, will remember that this is the third time in less than a week that Trump has publicly put Hamas on notice.
In his February 4 press conference, Trump added that “we’d like to get all of the hostages, and if we don’t, it will just make us somewhat more violent.”
Trump had issued an initial warning on December 2 before taking office, “[If] the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity.”
The timing of Trump’s final warning to Hamas following his Air Force One warning is no coincidence. It came just hours ahead of a scheduled Israeli Security Cabinet meeting aimed at discussing the launching of the second stage of the hostage-for-terrorist deal with Hamas and Israel’s red lines in those negotiations. Those red lines, which were agreed upon with President Trump during Netanyahu’s Washington visit, include the return of all the hostages, the complete demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and the deportation of the Hamas military leadership to destinations abroad.
Hamas would be well advised to heed Trump’s warnings. Trump has publicly endorsed Israel’s right to continue its war to defeat Hamas and affiliated jihadi groups such as Islamic Jihad and other armed local clans.
Since the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, the two leaders have been subject to ridicule and cynicism by Arab and Western media. However, those who have questioned Trump’s intentions may remember his record on fulfilling promises regarding the Palestinian issue: Trump was the first president to close the PLO offices in Washington, and he withdrew U.S. funding from UNRWA, which was subsequently proven after October 7, 2023, to be collaborating with Hamas. He also closed the U.S. Consulate in western Jerusalem on Agron Street, which had for years served as a de facto consulate for the PLO–PA. More important, Trump was the first president to fulfill the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, and moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He also enforced the Taylor Force Act, cutting U.S. aid to the PA for continued Pay-for-Slay payments to terrorists and their families.
According to Netanyahu’s inner circle, the prime minister and Trump are closely coordinated on the redlines for the second stage. It is more than reasonable to assess that the president and the prime minister’s coordination on stage two will vindicate Netanyahu’s public promise that he reiterated at the presidential summit, fulfilling the government’s original goals: removing Hamas from power, eliminating the terror threat from Gaza, and returning all the hostages.
In view of Israel’s agreement to the painful concessions in the current hostages-for-terrorists ceasefire agreement – known as a Hudna in Arabic culture, not a ceasefire in the Western understanding of the term – Israel still maintains one major leverage point: its controlling presence on the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometer highway separating Egypt from Gaza. The Philadelphi route had become a highway of terror – smuggling weaponry, supplies, and ammunition to Hamas. Israel’s continued control of the Philadelphi Corridor constitutes an essential defense against the continued flow of weapons shipments into Hamas control.
For its part, Hamas has upped the ante appearing to test Trump’s resolve. It rejected Israel’s redlines out of hand and then rescinded its rejection. It is well understood in Jerusalem and Washington that Hamas’s rejection will prevent the completion of stage two. Additionally, Washington’s intentions to pressure Hamas via its intermediaries in Qatar and Egypt will most likely fail. This imminent collision has left a small interim window in which to receive additional hostages for the return of additional terrorists in order to delay an inevitable clash with Hamas.
In parallel to U.S.-Israel coordination and Trump’s specific warnings, Israel’s leadership has ordered the IDF to prepare a new strategy and tactics to resume the war. Netanyahu’s instructions to the IDF also builds on U.S.-Israel understandings, as Trump recently released Biden’s embargo of some 200 D9 bulldozers and MOAB bombs that can be used both to destroy Hamas tunnels and Iranian underground nuclear and strategic sites.
The bottom line is this: President Trump’s declarations to Hamas are far more than mere rhetoric. These are concrete intentions backed by Israeli military readiness and American-Israeli coordination. This time around, Hamas will not be able to look to its PA “counterparts” in Ramallah who have supported Hamas’s massacre, kidnapping, and subsequent war against Israel.
Israel can also count on this president to veto any PA attempt to initiate condemnatory resolutions against Israel via third parties in the UN Security Council or other international organizations in its never-ending attempt to prevent Israel’s right to defend itself, to release its hostages, and defeat the Iran-backed Hamas terror organizations.
