U.S. President Donald Trump accused Hamas on Friday of extortion during the indirect hostage talks with Israel, saying he believes that it would be safer to free the captives through military pressure rather than through pursuing an agreement.
“The situation has to end. It’s extortion, and it has to end,” Trump told reporters during a press conference in the Oval Office. “I actually think they’re safer in many ways if you went in and you really went in fast.”
Asked why Washington appears to be backing Israel’s Aug. 8 decision to order the Israel Defense Forces to take Gaza City, despite the opposition of some hostage families to the plan, Trump replied that “not all of them” disapproved.
“I’m the one that got all of the hostages out. You got a lot of people out. If it wasn’t for me, they wouldn’t be out,” the president continued his response. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of them, they’re great people.”
He then suggested that fewer than 20 hostages remain alive in Gaza captivity, apparently contradicting the official Israeli assessment.
“The 20 is actually probably not 20 because a couple maybe aren’t around any longer,” stated the president. “I said, you know, when you get down to 20, they’re not going to make deals anymore—and they didn’t.
“Now we have that final little group of people. And Hamas knows that if they give them, that’s probably the end of their lives,” he said. “So it’s not easy to get. And I know, if you’re a parent, you just don’t care, you want to—I want my baby back, they want their babies back. They want their kids back, and I understand it, but I got them out and did a good job.”
IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for the captives and missing, told the families in response to Trump’s remarks: “There is no change in the details you have received from us.
“Twenty of the hostages are alive, two are in serious condition, and 28 have been confirmed dead and are classified as fallen captives,” he stated.
In his remarks, Trump emphasized that “people can’t forget October 7, remember that,” referencing the 2023 Hamas-led massacre in Israel’s south, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures, and the kidnapping of 251 others.
The Security Cabinet is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to approve plans for the IDF takeover of Gaza City, an operation dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots II.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Aug. 14 outlined his government’s parameters for ending the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The five conditions for victory are the full disarmament of Hamas; the return of all 50 remaining hostages; the demilitarization of the entire Strip; security control of Gaza; and establishing “an alternative civilian administration” in the enclave.
