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Donald Trump issues a proclamation from the Oval Office
Trump issues Hamas a “last warning”
“Release all of the hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” the US president wrote as part of what he called a “last warning.” The language of his post was direct, even by Trump standards: “I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” he wrote. “Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”
Hamas hasaccused Trump of encouraging Israel to end the ceasefire and resume the war. The Israeli government says there are 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, and as many as two dozen are believed to be alive. Israel has released hundreds of Palestinians from its custody.
Israeli tanks are seen inside Gaza amid a ceasefire breakdown between Israel and Hamas on March 2, 2025.
Israel disrupts aid delivery to Gaza after ceasefire talks fail
Israeli Defense Forces blocked aid trucks from entering Gaza on Sunday, just one day after the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas expired, bringing negotiations over a permanent truce to a standstill. Arab states have condemned the Israeli move.
Context: Under the original ceasefire agreement, Israel and Hamas were supposed to enter the second phase of the deal on Saturday. This would have involved the release of the remaining 59 Israeli hostages by Hamas and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. This original concept has now been undermined as the Israelis are instead looking for alternative options for extending the first phase of the tenuous truce.
What’s next: By blocking aid from Gaza, Israel is seeking to build leverage. Rather than commencing its withdrawal in return for the remaining hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahunow wants the militant group to release half of the captives before it negotiates a permanent ceasefire before April 20. Hamas has refused the extension and wants Egypt and Qatar to mediate.
Points of leverage: Israel is using the withholding of aid and the threat of further fighting to corner its adversary. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday announced another $4 billion in military aid for Israel to help boost its security. As long as Hamas retains the 59 hostages, though, there will be pressure on Netanyahu to swiftly bring an end to the war — polls show an overwhelming majority of Israelis want the prime minister to maintain the ceasefire deal.Israeli machinery maneuvers during an Israeli operation in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Feb. 23, 2025.
Gaza ceasefire hits a snag
Uneasy week: Tensions have been high since Hamas mistakenly sent the remains of an anonymous Gazan woman instead of those of Shiri Bibas when it returned the bodies of three Israeli hostages last week.
The Israeli government says it won’t return the Palestinian prisoners until Hamas commits to halting the hostage “ceremonies.” Finalizing the first phase of the deal, which is set to expire next weekend, is contingent upon the release of these detainees. Hamas, in turn, has called the delay a “blatant violation of [the ceasefire’s] terms.”
The second phase of the deal would involve Hamas releasing all remaining Israeli hostages in return for Israel withdrawing its troops from Gaza, and the details of the third and final phase still need to be ironed out.
Complicating matters further, the Israel Defense Forces moved tanks into the West Bank on Sunday and told tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians that they could not return to their homes in the occupied area. The moves are reportedly part of the largest Israeli military operation into the Palestinian Authority-controlled territory for more than two decades.Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, on the day the bodies of the deceased hostages were handed over under by Hamas on Feb. 20, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Israel mourns as bodies return home, Trump stokes pessimism and optimism, McConnell officially retires, Canada calls cartels “terrorists,” Archaeologists make major find in Egypt
3 of 4: On Thursday, Hamas returned the bodies of what they said were four hostages, including two small children and their mother, Shiri Bibas, as well as an elderly activist. The bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz, were returned to Israel in a grim spectacle involving black caskets and masked militants, but tests confirmed later that the fourth casket was holding anonymous remains, not the body of Shiri Bibas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement and vowed revenge. Hamas said that the mother’s remains must have been mixed up with others after an Israeli strike. Meanwhile, following explosions on three empty buses in central Israel — nobody was injured in the apparent terror attack — on Thursday night, Netanyahu has ordered an intensive military operation in the West Bank.
53: How’s Donald Trump doing with the public? 53% of respondents in a new CNN poll said they feel either “pessimistic” or “afraid.” Nearly two-thirds said the president hasn’t gone “far enough” to address inflation, while just over half said he had so far gone “too far” in his use of executive power. The partisan split is as stark as ever, with nearly 9 in 10 Republicans saying they are “enthusiastic” or “optimistic” about Trump’s second presidency.
18: After 18 years in the Senate as both majority and minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is officially retiring, he announced Thursday. The wily and cynical tactician drove Democrats nuts with his shrewd use of procedural rules to block their agenda, but he had a complicated relationship with Donald Trump: He enabled the president’s rise even while questioning his assault on establishment norms. McConnell leaves behind a Republican Party that has been reshaped in Trump’s image.
7: Canada on Thursday listed seven transnational crime outfits, including major Latin American drug cartels, as “terrorist” groups. The move, which comes on the heels of similar designations by the US, expands Ottawa’s tools to go after them. In February, PM Justin Trudeau promised this move as part of a deal to postpone US tariffs for 30 days.
103: Long live the king. No, not the US president but Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II, whose tomb was discovered this week in Egypt’s famed Valley of the Kings. It is the first major discovery of its kind since archaeologists found the tomb of Thutmose’s descendant Tutankhamun 103 years ago.President Donald Trump meets with Jordan's King Abdullah in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, on Feb. 11, 2025.
Israel-Hamas ceasefire may hold. Trump’s Gaza plan? Not so much
While meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump reiterated his intention to “take” Gaza, displace its two million residents to nearby countries, and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Middle Eastern states are set to meet in Saudi Arabia to come up with their own plan, which they will present to Trump, but Abdullah was cautious and noncommittal while in the Oval. Later, in a social media post, the king said that during his meeting with Trump he “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank” and called this “the unified Arab position.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, meanwhile, said this week that he will not visit Washington for talks on the Middle East while Trump’s Gaza displacement plan is on the agenda.
But Trump has threatened to cut off crucial US aid to Egypt and Jordan unless they comply. Cairo and Amman each receive about $1.5 billion annually in military and other aid from Washington.
Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami, hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack, are released by Hamas militants as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel on Feb. 8, 2025.
Hostage release sparks outrage, Israel withdraws from more of Gaza
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly shocked by their condition and vowed to bring the remaining hostages home. “Due to the harsh condition of the three hostages and the repeated violations of the Hamas terror groups,” his office said in a statement, “the prime minister has ordered that Israel will not gloss over this and will take action as needed.” Hamas, meanwhile, says it won’t release more hostages until Israel withdraws completely from Gaza.
What’s next? Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel withdrew from Gaza’s Netzarim corridor on Sunday, allowing thousands of displaced Palestinians to return north. But military operations continue: Israeli forces on Sunday killed three Palestinians in Gaza and two women in the West Bank, one of whom was pregnant, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
And as nations continue to reject US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to relocate Gaza’s inhabitants to other parts of the Middle East, Netanyahu suggested that a Palestinian state could be established in Saudi Arabia. While the Israeli PM reportedly appeared to be joking, Riyadh immediately repudiated the comments. Qatar, which is set to mediate the next round of the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel this week, also condemned the remarks.
Silhouettes of soldiers stand in front of a computer screen displaying an image of President Donald Trump, alongside a Palestinian flag, on Feb. 05, 2025.
Trump aides scramble to clarify Gaza proposal amid backlash
Unsurprisingly, much of the world reacted with horror to US President Donald Trump’s call on Monday, at a press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, for the deportation of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million people and a US takeover of the enclave.
But the Trump administration was forced to reckon with blowback in Washington too as lawmakers, even within the Republican Party, questioned the cost and wisdom of the plan.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that despite Trump’s pledge to make Gaza “the Riviera of the Middle East,” the US does not intend to spend money on any Gaza reconstruction projects and that Trump’s plans did not entail “boots on the ground” in the enclave.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly fielded a barrage of questions about these issues during a closed-door session with GOP lawmakers on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lauded Trump’s willingness to “think outside the box” but said only that the Pentagon would “look at all options.”
Sec. of State Marco Rubiosaid Trump had made a “generous” offer and contradicted his boss’s resettlement proposal by saying that the displacement of Gazans would be “temporary.”
Notably, no administration officials ruled out the core of Trump’s proposal, which was the forced removal of the entire Gazan population. According to legal scholars, this would amount to a “straightforward” crime against humanity under international law.
On Thursday, notably, the Israeli defense minister asked the army to formulate a plan under which Palestinians could “voluntarily” leave Gaza by land, air, or sea. And Trump posted to his social platform Thursday morning that the Gaza Strip will “be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
Released Doron Steinbrecher embraces loved ones at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, after being held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, on Jan. 19, 2025.
Gaza ceasefire goes into effect, and three hostages are set free
Following last-minute disagreements over Israeli troop withdrawals and the identities of the hostages to be released, the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel went into effect on Sunday.
So far, three Israeli hostages — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher — have been reunited with their families, ending 471 days in captivity following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas. They were the first of the 33 hostages set to be released under the deal — and Israel has agreed to release 1,900 Palestinians from Israeli jails. As of early Monday local time, 90 Palestinian prisoners had already been freed.
Domestic political costs: On Sunday, Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvirresigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet to protest the ceasefire. He was joined by two other ministers from the far-right Jewish Power party. This leaves Netanyahu with only a slim governing majority in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Further defection could lead to the government's collapse.
Will the deal hold up? For the first phase, lasting 42 days, the incentives seem well enough aligned to keep either side from breaching the peace. Hamas needs time to reorganize and rearm, which it can achieve by releasing the 33 hostages it has promised throughout the first phase. Netanyahu, for his part, wants to deliver those hostages for voters — but after that phase is over, prospects dim.