Israel knows there are still 24 hostages remaining alive in Gaza, but with every day that passes, "there's less of a chance that they'll remain alive," Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, told Newsmax Sunday.
"They're being tortured and they're being starved, Hassan-Nahoum said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "We're in a very, very dangerous situation."
She noted that Steven Witkoff, the United States special envoy to the Middle East, put together a plan that Hamas has rejected.
"They came back with an offer of one hostage alive and four dead for a ceasefire for a month and a half," Hassan-Nahoum said. "We are dealing with lethal, genocidal terrorists who are not negotiating in good faith because they don't know what good faith means."
She said she agrees with a call from the Trump administration to evacuate people living in Gaza.
"People in Gaza who are living under a terrible terrorist regime already for 20 years at least, should be given the option to move to a safer place," Hassan-Nahoum commented.
She added that President Donald Trump has said, "quite rightly," that the Gazans should not want to remain under "this terrible regime."
"When Syria was having a civil war, Syrian refugees left Syria and were taken in by different countries around Europe," said Hassan-Nahoum. "We don't see why the Gazans should be given the same opportunity."
Hamas, she added, has been using the Palestinians in Gaza as "human shields, as cannon fodder."
"They don't care about their own population," Hassan-Nahoum said. "These people are extremist jihadists who don't give any value to human life, not their own, and certainly not ours."
She added that she doesn't think Hamas is ready to negotiate, despite strikes from Israel this past week.
"They have been regrouping," said Hassan-Nahoum. "They have been getting ready for the next fight. These people are not done. It's very clearly in their charter that they are there to destroy not just the State of Israel, but to kill all the Jews around the world, not just the ones in Israel."
Meanwhile, Hassan-Nahoum said she hopes that the United States and Israel can work together to get the Iranian people to overthrow their "horrible regime" that "gives people zero freedoms."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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