‘We are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home,’ Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
President Donald Trump said Hamas appears to have a death wish after the terrorist organization’s refusal to cut a hostage release deal prompted Israel to consider “alternative options” to bring remaining hostages home.
“They pulled out of Gaza, they pulled out in terms of negotiating,” Trump said during a Friday press gaggle before a flight to Scotland. “It was too bad. Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad. And it got to be to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job.”
Trump said Hamas refused to make a deal out of fear over what would happen to them once the last of the hostages return home.
“They know what happens after you get the final hostages,” the president told reporters. “They’re going to have to fight, and they’re going to have to clean it up. You’re going to have to get rid of it.”
Trump’s comments come a day after the United States recalled its diplomatic team from Qatar, ending two weeks of intense ceasefire negotiations with Hamas after the terror group rejected the Trump administration’s latest offer. Special envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas leaders were “selfish” and not “acting in good faith.” Mediators Qatar and Egypt, however, had made a “great effort” to broker a deal, Witkoff said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, said “Witkoff got it right” in his assessment that Hamas is not taking negotiations seriously.
“Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal,” Netanyahu wrote Friday in a post on X. “Together with our U.S. allies we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region.”
Hamas demanded that the United States end aid operations by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as part of any ceasefire, a condition the Washington Free Beacon first reported.
The terror organization also reportedly desired guarantees that Israel would not resume its war effort even without a final deal within a 60-day ceasefire period. Hamas also required as part of an agreement that Israel release 200 prisoners serving life sentences and around 2,000 others arrested since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, the Jerusalem Post reported.
