President Donald Trump has issued yet another genocidal threat against Palestinians in Gaza, this time threatening collective punishment of the population over Hamas’s holding of captives in Gaza — even as Israeli leaders sabotage talks for further captive swaps, delaying their release.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that his administration is providing Israel with all of the weapons it needs to “finish the job” of Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
“[T]o the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!” Trump wrote in a post Wednesday afternoon. “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”
The post is a clear incitement to genocide, experts have said — one of many such threats Trump has made in recent months.
Hamas officials have said that Trump’s threat is a way to give Israel more reason to avoid ceasefire and captive release negotiations.
“These threats complicate matters regarding the ceasefire agreement and encourage the occupation to avoid implementing its terms,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim in a statement.
Israel has long sought to scuttle ceasefire negotiations, but has faced pressure from the public to secure the release of captives held by Hamas-led forces in Gaza. Thirty-three Israelis were released in the first phase of the ceasefire, in exchange for roughly 2,000 Palestinian detainees.
However, Israeli officials have refused to move on to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement they signed on to earlier this year, and are now seemingly seeking to sabotage the agreement altogether, implementing a total blockade of aid since the end of the first phase on Sunday.
Instead, Israel is trying to impose a new agreement that it says was proposed by the U.S. to speed the release of the captives and disarm and expel Hamas from leadership, which was not part of the already agreed-upon deal. These last minute demands have put the release of the remaining captives — roughly 59 held in Gaza, and yet more thousands of Palestinians held by Israel — in limbo for now.
However, the U.S. is also holding talks directly with Hamas, Axios reported on Wednesday. The discussions are being held behind closed doors, but reportedly include negotiations for the remaining captives, including five Americans, to be released from Gaza.
Analysts have said that Trump’s repetition of his genocidal statements may be part of a strategy to make it seem as though his threats are what spurred the release of the captives, rather than the diplomatic efforts.
“[T]his is hardly the first time Trump has made such threats, so there is some justification to viewing his words as camouflage for his action,” said Middle East expert Mouin Rabbani on social media. “The captives get out, and the Trump cult can point to his threats of Armageddon as the reason. In the words of Laleh Khalili, ‘Given that the US is directly negotiating with Hamas, this is just for his bloodthirsty telly/online audiences.’”
Trump has also faced heavy criticism from advocates for Palestinian rights for his statement referring to Hamas’s holding of deceased captives’ bodies, saying, “Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!”
Advocates said that, if he truly believes that withholding bodies is wrong, he should be criticizing Israel instead. Indeed, withholding bodies is a longstanding practice of the Israeli military, with Israeli forces currently holding at least hundreds of bodies of Palestinians they’ve killed — if not over a thousand. Gaza officials have also said that Israel has stolen thousands of bodies from Gaza cemeteries amid the genocide.
“On one thing, POTUS is right: withholding bodies of deceased people is absolutely sickening — and flagrantly unlawful,” said UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese. “This is why I have accused Israel of committing an international crime in withholding bodies of hundreds of Palestinians killed or dead while in custody, never returning them to their families, burying them in the ‘cemetery of numbers’ or storing them in fridges in despicable conditions. Enough with these ‘twisted and sick’ practices indeed!”
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