President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday that members of Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza are killed if the hostages are not immediately released.
“‘Shalom Hamas’ means hello and goodbye – you can choose. Free all the hostages now, not later, and immediately send all the corpses of the people you have murdered, or it’s over for you,” wrote Trump on Truth Social.
“I just met your old hostages whose life you destroyed. This is your last warning! For leadership, it is now time to leave Gaza, when you still have a chance, “he added. “Also, to the inhabitants of Gaza: a beautiful future is waiting, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead! Make an intelligent decision. Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later! »»
The White House said in a statement that Trump met eight hostages released from Gaza on Wednesday: Iair Horn, Omer Shem Tov, Eli Sharabi, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher and Noa Argamani.
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The administration is engaged in direct talks with Hamas about the release of the American hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, confirmed on Wednesday the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt.
Trump thinks that dialogue is part of An “effort in good faith to do what is good for the American people,” Leavitt said during a briefing of the White House.
“There is an American life at stake,” she added, saying that Israel had been consulted.
The six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended on Saturday without any extension of peace negotiations in sight. This is the first time that the United States has posed direct talks with the group, that it has appointed a terrorist organization.
Axios first pointed out the talks between the United States and Hamas.
When asked if the scope of talks included Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza, Leavitt said that she would not be in detail and did not refer questions to the State Department.
Initially, the idea of a second phase of a ceasefire included released more hostages from Hamas in exchange for the withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territory, in order to end the war.
But without talks continuing, Israel restored the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza after the end of the initial phase of the ceasefire. Hamas then accused Israel of having violated their agreement by “escaping the commitment to end the war and to retire completely from Gaza”.
Israel recently approved a plan of the American special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who would have continued the first stage of the ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover instead of going to the second phase of peace talks.
Witkoff’s plan provided for the release of half of the remaining hostages, including the bodies of those who died, the first day and the hostages remaining once a permanent cease-fire contract is concluded, according to the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But Hamas rejected the proposal, saying that it did not honor the original agreement of the multiplied ceasefire.
“Unfortunately, these United States positions have strengthened the Zionist’s position within the government and prompted punitive measures, in particular by closing level passages and using famine policy against the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip,” the group spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement on Sunday.
The spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House, Brian Hughes, said on Sunday in a statement that Israel had “negotiated in good faith since the start of this administration to ensure the release of the hostages held by the terrorists of Hamas”.
Hughes added that the United States will support Israel’s decision on the next steps “since Hamas said it was no longer interested in a negotiated ceasefire”.
On Monday, Netanyahu warned Hamas in remarks before the Knesset, the legislature of Israel, that if the group has not released more hostages, “there will be consequences beyond your imagination. We are preparing for the next stages of the campaign – everything is not visible, and that is a good thing.”
The Biden administration announced the initial ceasefire in January a few days before the inauguration of Trump. It took a break from Israeli military operations in Gaza and the release of living and dead hostages held there in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
