US President-elect Donald Trump spoke on Sunday at a rally in Washington, DC, ahead of his inauguration on Monday, and commented on the release of Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari from Hamas captivity, as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

"This week, we achieved an epic ceasefire agreement as a first step toward lasting peace in the Middle East — and this agreement could only have happened as a result of our historic victory in November," he stated.

“I’m glad to report that the first hostages have just been released, and who knows what’s going to happen,” Trump said, before rejecting President Joe Biden’s claims that he brokered the deal.

“I know that Biden is saying that he made the deal, well…first of all, [October 7] would have never happened if I were President. It would have never happened. There was not even a thought of it. Iran was broke, it had no money for Hezbollah, they had no money for Hamas. They had no money. They were broke. Totally broke.”

“I want to thank Steve Witkoff,” he added, referencing his Special Envoy to the Middle East who had spoken earlier during the rally and said the hostage deal would not have happened without Trump. “He’s an amazing guy. I said, ‘We have to get a good negotiator.’ A lot of guys are knowledgeable but they can’t negotiate. They don’t have the personality or whatever. And Steve does, and Steve’s a great negotiator…this breakthrough really couldn’t have been done without Steve.”

“Our incoming administration achieved all of this in the Middle East, in less than three months, without being President. We’ve achieved more without being President than they’ve achieved in four years with being President,” stated Trump.

In early December 2024, Trump became personally involved in the issue of the hostages held in Gaza when he threatened that there would be "all hell to pay" if the hostages are not freed by the time of his inauguration on January 20.

Trump has repeated that threat multiple times in the weeks since. This past Thursday, before the deal was officially signed in Qatar, Trump again stressed the urgency of finalizing the agreement before his inauguration on Monday.

“We changed the course of it, and we changed it fast, and frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office,” Trump stated during a podcast interview with Dan Bongino.

“We shook hands, and we signed certain documents, but it better be done,” he added.

On Saturday, Trump gave an interview to NBC News in which he commented on the ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Asked how confident he was that the hostages would be released, Trump replied, “Well, we’re going to see very soon, and it better hold.”

He also said he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “Just keep doing what you have to do. You have to have — this has to end. We want it to end, but to keep doing what has to be done.”