Israel has long warned Hamas terrorists have been using Gaza citizens and hostages as human shields since Oct. 7, 2023, and now President Donald Trump is issuing a final warning against that terrorist tactic.
"I have just read a News Report that Hamas has moved the hostages above ground to use them as human shields against Israel's ground offensive," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Monday night. "I hope the Leaders of Hamas know what they're getting into if they do such a thing.
"This is a human atrocity, the likes of which few people have ever seen before. Don't let this happen or, ALL 'BETS' ARE OFF. RELEASE ALL HOSTAGES NOW!"
Trump's stern warning came hours after a news conference with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and then just hours before the Israeli Defense Forces began what they consider to be the beginning of the end of Hamas' reign in Gaza.
The Israeli military began a ground offensive targeting Gaza City on Tuesday, slowly squeezing in on the Palestinian territory's largest city that has seen block after block already destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war. Residents still in the city were warned they must leave and head south.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared "Gaza is burning" while anti-Israel officials commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council announced Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, joining a rising international chorus of such accusations.
Israel fiercely rejected the claim, calling the experts' report "distorted and false."
Israel has long outlined its war on Hamas objectives as:
- Return all the hostages.
- Destroy Hamas and remove its terrorists and leadership in hiding around the world.
- Demilitarize and deradicalize Gaza.
The future leadership of Gaza remains in doubt as globalist forces are demanding a two-state solution that Israel rejects as the cause for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack and not the solution for peace in the region.
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.
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