‘Not one American hostage freed by Hamas’ – Trump slams Biden over hostage deal

The Republican frontrunner says the reason is that America is no longer respected in the world.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Former president Donald Trump slammed the Biden administration Saturday night over the fact that Hamas has yet to free American citizens in the first two tranches of hostage releases in the last two days.

“Has anybody noticed that Hamas has returned people from other Countries but, so far, has not returned one American Hostage?” Trump wrote on his media platform, Truth Social. “There is only one reason for that, NO RESPECT FOR OUR COUNTRY OR OUR LEADERSHIP. This is a very sad and dark period of America!”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Col) echoed the criticism, writing on X, “Hamas is refusing to release the American citizens they have taken hostage. What is the President of the United States doing about this? He’s continuing to enjoy his holiday vacation in a $40 million dollar mansion.”

On Friday, the Hamas terror group freed 24 of some 240 people who had been kidnapped during its fighters’ October 7 killing spree in which it slaughtered 1,200 people, most of them civilians. They included 10 Thai agricultural workers, one Philippine citizen, four Israeli children and their mothers, and the rest elderly women.

Late Saturday night, the terrorists released 17 people, eight of them Israeli children, five women and four Thais. In what Israel is calling a “gross violation” of the deal with Hamas, one girl was freed without her mother.

There are to be four exchanges for 50 female and young hostages in total, with one more scheduled for Sunday and another one Monday. For each Israeli released, three Palestinian prisoners are going free, most of them women and minors convicted of violent terror offenses.

The foreign workers are being released in a separate agreement made on the side with Hamas by the Thai government.

For every ten additional Israeli kidnappees, Israel has said it will continue for another day the ceasefire and supply of humanitarian aid that began Friday, as well as keep releasing prisoners on the same 3-to-1 basis.

According to Trump, however, “Hamas now wants a better deal for hostages,” as he wrote separately Saturday, commenting, “This is not going to end well!”

The list of hostages that are to be freed each day is only given to Israel on the day of the exchange. There are about ten Americans being held captive, with the uncertainty coming from the fact that an unknown number are still considered “missing.” Some of those murdered were burned to death and any remains are almost impossible to find, and Hamas has yet to provide a comprehensive list of the abductees or allow the Red Cross to visit those whom it – and other terror organizations in the Gaza Strip – are holding.

President Joe Biden told reporters Friday that he “expected” that American hostages would be released soon. Separately, he said that “We will also not stop until we get these hostages brought home and an answer to their whereabouts.”

Biden emphasized again his special concern for four-year-old American-Israeli Avigail Idan, whose parents were massacred in their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the October 7 invasion. Her two older siblings, Michael (9) and Amalya (6) hid in a closet for 14 hours and were rescued.

Hamas freed two Israeli-American citizens, Judith and Natalie Ra’anan, on October 20, in what was noted ___ as a trial run proving that Qatari mediation with Hamas would work. The current hostage deal was then brokered over long weeks of negotiations involving the prime minister of Qatar, top American administration officials including President Joe Biden, Egyptians and Israelis.