Donald Trump’s administration has sidestepped stalling ceasefire talks in the Middle East to communicate directly with Hamas, breaking a decades-old ‘taboo’ against negotiating with terrorists. It is hoped that the president’s direct and aggressive approach finally allows Israeli captives to return home, more than 500 days after the October 7th attacks, while Europe—as is also true in relation to the war in Ukraine—watches from the sidelines.
While these talks are shrouded in secrecy, Trump himself gave a flavour of what his team has been putting forward to Hamas in an explosive post on his Truth Social account:
Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you. …
I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say. …
This is your last warning!
After meeting this week with eight released hostages, the president also attacked Hamas as “sick and twisted” for keeping the bodies of dead Israelis. The terror group even late last month placed the wrong body in a coffin supposedly designated for the mother of its youngest captive, also dead—all this after posing in front of an antisemitic poster portraying Benjamin Netanyahu as a blood-soaked vampire.
More than 250 Israeli hostages were kidnapped during the bloody October 7th attacks. Netanyahu’s government believes that around 25 living hostages still remain in Gaza, as well as the bodies of more than 30 others.
Ahead of Trump’s latest—and, apparently, final—vocal intervention, Netanyahu praised the U.S. president as “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”
The second stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire appears to remain out of reach.
