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US President-elect Donald Trump called for all hostages in the Middle East be released before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, seemingly referring to the more than 50 hostages believed to be still alive in Gaza.
Trump said there will be “all hell to pay,” if they are not, without going into detail as to what such an action might entail.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America,” he wrote in a social media post.
The call came hours after the Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that an Israeli-American solider, formerly believed taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, was killed and his body had been taken to Gaza.
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International observers widely expect Trump’s re-election to embolden Israel’s campaign in Gaza to eliminate Hamas — although some military analysts doubt whether that is possible in practice.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s fragile ceasefire was shaken Monday after Hezbollah fired inside a disputed border zone; families of the remaining hostages in Gaza had hoped the truce might pave the way for a similar cessation of fighting there.