US President-elect Donald Trump issued a stern warning to Hamas, urging the group to release the hostages it continues to hold before his inauguration on 20 January 2025, emphasising that failure to comply will result in severe consequences.
“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 who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform. “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!” he concluded.
During Hamas’s unprecedented 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, 1,200 people were killed, and 251 others were abducted and taken to Gaza.
Yesterday, Hamas reported that 33 hostages have been killed since the start of Israeli military operations in the Palestinian enclave, while the fate of others remains unknown.
Also read: Hamas: No hostage swap deal without ceasefire
Source: ANA-MPA