He president-elect of the United States, Donald Trumpcontinues to plague international politics even before reaching the White House. This Monday, in a message in Truth Social, the republican has required what before he is sworn in occurs the release of the hostages what Hamas has held since October 7, 2023 and has threatened that the Middle East and “those who have perpetrated these atrocities against humanity”, without ever expressly mentioning the radical Palestinian militia, will have to “pay hell” if that requirement is not met.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anyone has been in the long and legendary history of the United States,” he wrote in his usual hyperbolic tone Trump, who has taken the opportunity to latently but obviously launch a blow to Joe Biden. “Everyone talks about the hostages (…) but “It’s all words and no action.”he wrote as a preamble to his message.
This represents a threat of escalation, despite the fact that Trump campaigned with the promise of keeping Washington away from international conflicts and singling out Biden for the start of the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine during his mandate. In that race he also promised that he would bring peace to the Middle East and in particular to Gaza, but neither then nor in his message this Monday has he given details about how he plans to achieve it.
The message comes the same day that the Israel Defense Forces announced that Omer Neutra, and American hostage believed to be held in Gaza, died the same day of the attacks on October 7. Biden has issued a statement declaring “devastated and outraged” by the news of Neutra’s death, which had 21 years old and dual nationality and fought with the Israeli army and whose body is still in the possession of Hamas according to the Tel Aviv military.
The announcement of his death leaves three los American hostages believed to be still alive in Gaza. Hamas published a video this Saturday with images of one of them, Edan Alexandera 20-year-old young man who in the recording implored Trump to secure his release. It is estimated that the group also has the bodies of three other American hostages dead.
In total, and according to the Israeli authorities, Hamas keeps in Gaza about 100 of the nearly 250 hostages which took on October 7, 2023, with approximately a third of them already deceased.
