Adam Boehler, US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Hostage Response, issued a warning to the Hamas terrorist organization on Wednesday, after it claimed it is interested in a comprehensive deal with Israel, while leaving all its previous preconditions for such a deal intact.
“Hamas best pay attention to @realDonaldTrump,” Boehler wrote in a post to his X account, to which he attached a screenshot of President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social earlier in the day.
In that post, Trump called on Hamas to release all 20 living Israeli hostages in one wave and promised that the war would end if it did so.
"Tell Hamas to immediately give back all 20 Hostages (Not two or five or seven!), and things will change rapidly. It will end!" Trump wrote.
The Hostages Families Forum responded to the President's post: "President Trump, you have shown your commitment to us through the darkest times, but we respectfully wish to make it clear: this nightmare cannot end for our nation until ALL 48 hostages are accounted for - both those who survived and those who were brutally murdered during these 700 days of hell.
"President Trump, uphold your promise to us, which you made multiple times - bring all 48 hostages home and end this war. Our loved ones, held by Hamas terrorists, are counting on your leadership to bring them home now. The living and deceased have all run out of time. This is your moment to fulfill your most sacred promise," the forum added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded to the Hamas announcement on Wednesday and said, "Unfortunately, this is more spin by Hamas that has nothing new. The war could end immediately on the conditions set by the Security Cabinet:
1. All hostages are released.
2. Hamas is disarmed.
3. The Strip is demilitarized.
4. Israel has security control in the Strip.
5. An alternative civil administration is established that does not educate for terrorism, dispatch terrorists or threaten Israel.
Only these conditions will prevent Hamas from rearming and returning to the massacre of October 7 again and again as it has promised."
Defense Minister Israel Katz dismissed the Hamas announcement and said, "Hamas continues to close its eyes and utter empty words, but it will soon realize that it must choose between two options: accept Israel's conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and disarmament, or Gaza will become equivalent to Rafah and Beit Hanoun."
"The IDF is preparing at full strength," Katz said.