After making threat as candidate at the RNC, president-elect doubles down, two days after Hamas releases video of American-Israeli captive begging him to secure a deal.
Jacob Magid | JNS | 12-3-24 | Condensed
The American-Israeli hostage from Long Island, NY, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors, announced dead on Monday.
US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threatened those holding hostages in the Middle East with unprecedented American firepower if they are not released by the time he enters office on January 20.
Trump first made a similar threat as a presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in July, but the latest warning posted on Truth Social came two days after Hamas released a propaganda video showing American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander pleading with the president-elect to secure his release.
The statement also came hours after the IDF revealed that another American-Israeli hostage — Omer Neutra — was killed during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and that his body is being held in Gaza. Neutra had been thought to be alive, in captivity.
“Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk and no action!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without mentioning Israel or the Palestinian terror group by name.
“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 in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity,” he continued.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!” Trump added.
