President-elect Donald Trump has issued a fiery warning for all remaining Hamas hostages to be freed before his inauguration next month.
Trump’s threat echoed his longstanding support for Israel and his prior calls for people taken hostage on October 7, 2023, to be released.
‘Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform on Monday afternoon.
‘Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that 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.’
Trump added that ‘those responsible’ – the Palestinian militant group Hamas – ‘will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America’ if they do not let the hostages go.
It was not clear if Trump’s warning meant he would get the US military involved in the Israel-Hamas war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately comment on Trump’s social media post.
But Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised Trump.
‘Thank you and bless you Mr. President-elect @realDonaldTrump,’ Herzog Herzog wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
‘We all pray for the moment we see our sisters and brothers back home!’
The war started in October 2023 when militants with Hamas entered southern Israel and killed about 1,200 civilians. They took roughly 250 people stage and an estimated 100 are still being held in Gaza.
Last week the Biden administration, which brokered a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon, gave some credit to Trump’s incoming team.
The Biden administration continues to encourage Israel and Hamas to engage in peace negotiations, but said that the militant group did not seem interested or concerned about more lives being lost in Gaza.
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