US President Donald Trump issued fresh threats to Hamas on Saturday, saying the terror group would be to blame if the ceasefire collapsed, and repeating Israeli assertions that the group has been choosing not to hand over the bodies of some deceased hostages despite being able to.

He warned that he would be watching Hamas’s actions “very closely” over the next 48 hours.

Trump made the remarks in a social media post, and as he met Qatar’s emir and prime minister aboard Air Force One. The Gulf state served as a key mediator of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that took effect earlier this month.

The agreement requires Hamas to return all hostages, living and dead. Hamas has so far released the bodies of 15 deceased hostages along with the 20 surviving captives. The bodies of 13 others remain held in Gaza. The terror group has claimed that it is unable to access all of the bodies and does not know where some of them are. Israeli officials have reportedly said Hamas can reach most of the remaining hostages, giving varying estimates of how many may be inaccessible.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that there is currently a “very strong PEACE in the Middle East,” but that Hamas must “quickly” resume handing over the bodies to Israel or it will start facing consequences. He also alluded to the terror group resisting disarmament, another requirement of the deal.

“Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action. Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote. “Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations.

“Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely,” he added.

Following Trump’s post, a senior Hamas official reportedly pledged to expand the search for the remaining deceased hostages. Khalil al-Hayya, the terror group’s chief negotiator, told Qatar’s Al Jazeera overnight that teams would enter new areas of Gaza in order to locate hostages’ remains. He said Hamas did not want to provide Israel........

© The Times of Israel