Donald Trump Warns Hamas Says, ‘Release Hostages Or There Will Be Hell To Pay’
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US President-elect Donald Trump threatened those holding hostages in the Middle East with unprecedented American firepower if they are not released by the time he enters office on January 20.
Trump first made a similar threat as a presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in July, but the latest warning posted on Truth Social came two days after Hamas released a propaganda video showing American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander pleading with the president-elect to secure his release.
The statement also came hours after the IDF revealed that another American-Israeli hostage — Omer Neutra — was killed during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and that his body is being held in Gaza. Neutra had been thought to be alive, in captivity.
“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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without mentioning Israel or the Palestinian terror group by name.
“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,” he continued.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!” Trump added.
He called for the hostages’ release several times throughout his presidential campaign, but also made a point of insisting that most of the hostages are no longer alive.
Accordingly, he was reportedly caught off guard when President Isaac Herzog told him in a call late last month that Israeli intelligence assesses that half of the hostages still in Gaza are alive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara said she raised the plight of the hostages during her dinner on Sunday night with Trump at the president-elect’s golf resort in Florida.
The outgoing administration is still working to secure a deal before January 20 and US President Joe Biden met with the families of the remaining American hostages last month in the Oval Office.
“I don’t care if Trump gets all the credit as long as they come back home,” Biden told the families during the meeting, according to one of the family members in the room.
After securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah last week, Biden said he would launch another effort to secure a similar deal in Gaza, by leaning on Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt, which all have ties with Hamas, in order to coax the terror group into a deal.
The topic was slated to be discussed when a Hamas delegation held meetings in Cairo on Monday.
