Trump threatened ‘all hell’ if Hamas didn’t free all its hostages. What happened?

With Hamas saying it will release more hostages this weekend, President Donald Trump has yet to weigh in, as he did last week ahead of the planned Saturday hostage release threatening “all hell is going to break out” if all hostages weren’t freed by his deadline.

Last week, Trump demanded that if Hamas didn’t release “all of the hostages” by noon last Saturday, Feb. 15, Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas might end, although he wasn’t clear whether he was suggesting the U.S. or Israel would act in response.

His deadline came and went, and Hamas released the three hostages that were scheduled to be released on Feb. 15, including one American, according to the original ceasefire agreement, in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Experts told ABC News that Trump’s comments made little or no difference in Saturday’s outcome.

“Trump’s threat wasn’t much of an ultimatum, since Hamas was not about to release all of the hostages on Saturday under any scenario,” said Guy Ziv, associate professor at American University’s School of International Service.

On the heels of this exchange, Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages early Thursday morning, though the Israel Defense Forces later said one of bodies does not belong to a hostage.

What was the context?

“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock, I think it’s an appropriate time. I would say, cancel it and all bets are off, and let hell break out,” Trump said last week. “I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it. But from myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock, and if they’re not, they’re not here, all hell is going to break out.”

The president’s threats came after Hamas unexpectedly announced last week that it was delaying the next hostage release, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that violated the ceasefire deal. He later demanded all nine living Israeli hostages, who were supposed to be released during Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal, be released in the next few days, an Israeli official told ABC News last week.

When asked last week about Trump’s deadline and what he meant with his threat, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff did not go into detail but told “CBS Mornings,” “I would take President Trump at his word. He generally means what he says … so, I don’t think it’s a tactic.”

These exchanges also came a week after the announcement of Trump’s Gaza plan, in which the president expressed his desire to “take over” the Gaza Strip, relocate Palestinians, and redevelop the land. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres had responded to this plan, saying “it is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”

The deadline passes

Following the release of the hostages last Saturday, Trump turned to his social media platform to say it was up to Israel on how to move forward.

“Israel will now have to decide what they will do about the 12:00 O’CLOCK, TODAY, DEADLINE imposed on the release of ALL HOSTAGES,” he wrote on Saturday. “The United States will back the decision they make!”

Early Sunday morning, after a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Netanyahu emphasized his “cooperation and coordination” with Trump.

“We have a common strategy,” he said, “including when the gates of hell will be open, as they surely will, if all our hostages are not released until the last one of them.”

On Sunday, Trump told reporters, “I told Bibi, you do whatever you want because, you know my statement was they got to come back. Now, the reason I made that statement was because they said they weren’t gonna deliver — they were not going to deliver the people that they said they were going to deliver, that they agreed to deliver.”

“When I made the statement, they delivered everybody, plus an American,” Trump touted, appearing to take credit. In reality, the three hostages released Saturday were part of the ongoing ceasefire deal, including the release of American Sagui Dekel Chen on Feb. 15.

National security adviser Mike Waltz repeated the president’s sentiment during a press briefing Thursday.

“And when President Trump sent a very clear message across the Middle East, but particularly to Hamas, that there would be all hell to pay, we suddenly saw a breakthrough,” Waltz said.

But Trump’s claims should not be considered the final word, says one expert.

“World leaders have learned to heavily discount the words of Donald Trump,” Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told ABC News. Katulis noted additional examples of the president’s past comments that he says are filled with “hot air,” including Trump’s assertion that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in one day.

Threatening ‘hell’ for months

In fact, Trump has been threatening Hamas with “hell” for months.

In early December, Trump wrote on his social media platform that “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East” if hostages were not released prior to his Inauguration day, and that “those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”

“If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East,” Trump repeated in January when asked about the status of the hostage deal.

“All hell will break out,” he continued. “I don’t have to say any more, but that’s what it is.”

Trump’s language has been echoed by aides and supporters.

Appearing on Fox News in December, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller warned, “I would take him literally at his word. They will have hell to pay.”

Though he declined to go into specifics, Miller was confident that the president was “very serious on this one.”

One day before Trump’s inauguration, House Speaker Mike Johnson said “there will be hell to pay for Hamas if they violate these terms.”

Experts remain skeptical of Trump’s threats, despite their repetition throughout the past few months.

“The real hell that’s broken loose is the hell of confusion that comes from Trump’s erratic public statements here. It serves really no purpose,” Katulis said, arguing that “the real threat doesn’t come from Trump’s mouth, it comes from the weapons and bombs that Israel has.”

“Some have likened Trump’s coercive diplomacy to what [President Richard] Nixon called his ‘Madman Theory,'” Ziv said. “Trump wants other leaders to believe that he’s willing to do anything, that nothing can restrain him from achieving his objectives.”