US President Donald Trump prays at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tuesday, 3 December 2024 | US President-elect Donald Trump vowed consequences for Hamas on Monday if the terror group did not release its hostages before inauguration day.<\/p>\n

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that there had been \u201call talk, no action\u201d to free the captives so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as president of the US, there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the US of America,\u201d he added. \u201cRelease the hostages now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerusalem believes that 97 of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza after 423 days. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during \u201cOperation Protective Edge\u201d in 2014.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s statement demanding the release of hostages comes on the same day that the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] revealed that Omer Neutra, an Israeli\u2013American serving in the IDF who was previously thought to have been taken alive, was killed on October 7 and that Hamas continues to hold his body in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

It also follows Trump\u2019s meeting on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s older son, Yair, and the prime minister\u2019s wife, Sara, at the president-elect\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.<\/p>\n

Trump has previously indicated through surrogates that he wants a ceasefire-for-hostage deal to be completed by the time he takes office, but Monday\u2019s statement is one of the most direct such calls the president-elect has made and the clearest indication that he would demand consequences if a deal fails to materialize.<\/p>\n

Israeli President Isaac Herzog welcomed Trump\u2019s message on Monday. \u201cThank you and bless you Mr. President-elect Donald Trump,\u201d Herzog wrote. \u201cWe all pray for the moment we see our sisters and brothers back home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, 3 December 2024 | US President-elect Donald Trump vowed consequences for Hamas on Monday if the terror group did not release its hostages before inauguration day. Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that there had been \u201call talk, no action\u201d to free the captives so far. \u201cIf the hostages are not released<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":232700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n