U.S. President Donald Trump called Hamas’s treatment of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip “disgraceful” during remarks to reporters at the White House on Saturday.
“We had a lot of news over the last 24 hours. We had the hostages given back today. Disgraceful what is going on there. They are not in great shape, but we have also seen them in worse shape. The hostages, the six hostages were delivered by Hamas. What a terrible situation it is,” the president said.
Israel on Saturday redeemed six living hostages from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip: Eliya Cohen, 27, Avera Mengistu, 39, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, Omer Shem Tov, 22, Tal Shoham, 40, and Omer Wenkert, 23.
Israeli hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David were forced to watch their friends’ release ceremony from captivity as Hamas compelled the two to attend and watch the ceremony from inside a vehicle.
At the Conservative Political Action Committee just outside of Washington on Saturday, Trump noted that many of the hostages are coming back dead, but emphasized the importance of bringing them home. He recognized several Oct. 7 survivors in the audience, including Noa Argamani and Ilana Gritzewsky, and led the crowd in a round of applause for them, calling them “a beautiful group of people.”
Trump said on Friday that it is for Israel to decide whether to resume the war in Gaza or continue into the second round of talks with Hamas to free more hostages.
Asked by Brian Kilmeade on Fox News whether he was “okay either way,” Trump answered, “I am.”
Hamas is “so violent and vicious,” the president continued. “It’s a decision that has to be made; it’s a rough decision. One group [of hostages] came in so bad, it looked like [they came out of] a concentration camp in Germany,” he added, referring to Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, who were freed from Gazan captivity on Feb. 8 in emaciated and frail condition.
Trump went on to say that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “actually not torn. I mean, you know where he stands, and he would like to go in, and he’s just so angry, and he should be. If he’s not angry, then there’d be something wrong with him, frankly. He is very angry; he’s a very angry man at what happened, especially what happened yesterday with these kids … they were babies,” the president said, referring to the return of the bodies of children Ariel and Kfir Bibas who were kidnapped into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
“It looked like [the Gazans] were celebrating as they were bringing the bodies back. You know, to see it is not even believable. … [W]hen you see what’s happening … It’s so barbaric. You wouldn’t think that would happen in the modern age, but it happened,” he added.
Forensic analysis of Kfir and Ariel’s remains showed that they were murdered in cold blood by their Gaza captors. The Israel Defense Forces said that their killers had committed the crime “with their bare hands” weeks after being taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023.
A forensic analysis of their mother Shiri Bibas‘s remains found no evidence linking her death to an Israeli airstrike, contrary to claims made by Hamas.
Her remains were positively identified by Dr. Chen Kugel, director of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) in Tel Aviv.
“We identified Shiri Bibas two days after confirming the identities of her two young children, Kfir and Ariel,” Kugel stated on Saturday. “Our examination found no injuries consistent with a bombing.”
Hamas had long alleged that Bibas and her children were killed in an IDF airstrike in Gaza. However, the forensic findings directly contradict that narrative.
“We were met with depths of evil and malice that could not be conceived,” added Kugel.