President Trump Issues Warning to Hamas: Release Hostages or There’s Gonna Be “HELL TO PAY”

President Trump has just issued a serious warning to Hamas: you have until I take office on Inauguration Day to release all of the Gaza hostages, or else there will be “HELL TO PAY in the Middle East.”

Take a look:

The warning has been delivered. pic.twitter.com/4eaH5wmA1A

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 2, 2024

BREAKING: Trump warns of “ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East” if hostages are not released by Inauguration Day. pic.twitter.com/3YPJNr3ioT

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 2, 2024

Backup of his Truth Social post here:

President of Israel Isaac Herzog thanked Trump for his response:

Thank you and bless you Mr. President-elect @realDonaldTrump.

We all pray for the moment we see our sisters and brothers back home! pic.twitter.com/Vm2WwtMNYZ

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) December 2, 2024

President Trump’s warning comes shortly after an announcement from the IDF that American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra had died during the Oct. 7th attack, and it was only just now confirmed since his body had been taken to Gaza.

Axios World provided some additional

context:

resident-elect Trump threatened on Monday that if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are not released before his inauguration “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge.”

Why it matters: This is the first time since he won the election that Trump has weighed in publicly on the hostages that are being held in Gaza.

• The hostage families hope that his involvement both in private and in public could lead to a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations for their release.

Driving the news: Trump’s statement in a post on Truth Social came a few hours after the IDF announced that Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli hostage held by Hamas, had died during the Oct. 7 attack and that his body was taken to Gaza.

• For more than 420 days, Neutra’s family didn’t have any information on whether he was dead or alive.
• A senior Israeli intelligence official said the determination was made after IDF obtained new information that established the fact that Neutra had been killed.
• Hamas released a video on Saturday with proof of life from U.S. citizen Edan Alexander, who is also being held hostage in Gaza, who called on Trump to negotiate for his release.

AP added:

President-elect Donald Trump is demanding the immediate release of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, saying that if they are not freed before he is sworn into office for a second term there will be “HELL TO PAY.”

“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,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.

He added that, “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!”

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It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening to directly involve the U.S. military in Israel’s ongoing campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Trump allies have said he hopes there will be a ceasefire and hostage release deal before he returns to office early next year.