JAKARTA – Senior Hamas officials evaluate Trump’s statement on the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians are directed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government.
US President-elect Trump said on Monday there would be a “dear price” in the Middle East if hostages held in the Gaza Strip are not released before his inauguration next month.
It became the strongest statement since the Republican politician was re-elected as leader of Uncle Sam’s country in November. His own nomination will take place on January 20.
“(If) the hostages are not released before January 20, 2025, when I am proud to be President of the United States, there will be all hell that must be paid in the Middle East, and for those who are responsible for this cruelty against humanity,” he wrote on social media.
“Those responsible will receive harsher sentences than anyone ever convicted in the long and advanced history of the United States,” Trump added.
In response, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Prime Minister Netanyahu had sabotaged all efforts to secure a deal involving a hostage exchange with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
“Therefore, we understand that (Trump’s) message is primarily to Netanyahu and his government to end this malicious game,” he told Reuters.
-Separately, Gaza political analyst Ramiz Mogani said Trump’s threats were against Hamas and its Iranian supporters, warning that he would not only dare to expel Palestinians from the Gaza region, but also annex the West Bank occupied by Israel nearby.
“These statements have serious implications for Israel’s wars in Gaza and the West Bank,” he told Reuters.
At least 250 people are known to have been entangled hostage and hostage in the Gaza Strip in an attack by a Hamas-led militant group on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli calculations. Some have been released, half are still in Gaza, although at least as if they had been killed.
Israel and Hamas themselves have been in negotiations since October 2023, but after the initial release of the hostages in November last year, little progress has been made with both sides blaming each other.
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