As Israel continues to move its military assets toward a potential complete takeover of Gaza from the Hamas terrorist group, seeking to eradicate it in an effort to end the war, President Donald Trump is making yet another urgent plea for Hamas to release all hostages.
"Tell Hamas to IMMEDIATELY give back all 20 Hostages (Not 2 or 5 or 7!), and things will change rapidly," Trump wrote Wednesday morning on Truth Social.
"IT WILL END!"
Since the start of the Israel war on Hamas after Oct. 7, 2023 — which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls a seven-front war with Iran and its Middle East terrorist proxies — the stated goals to achieve victory in the war have long been:
- Return all hostages.
- Eradicate Hamas.
- Demilitarize and deradicalize Gaza.
Trump's post above calls for the 20 hostages believed to still be alive to be returned. There are an estimated 50 hostages taken Oct. 7 still unaccounted for, making it likely the 30 others are presumed to be dead and would have to be returned as remains.
Israel has continued to face world opposition to its war on Hamas as "genocide," but Israel maintains any deaths of purported "innocents" are a function of Hamas' terrorist tactic of using civilians as human shields against military operations to achieve the above stated goals to end the war.
Hamas terrorists not only have reportedly used humanitarian aid to build terror tunnels under Gaza, operations in those tunnels take place under hospitals, if not within them. This makes strikes on terrorists appear to outsiders as alleged attacks on civilians, Israeli officials have argued since the start of the war.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.