Trump Demands Hamas ‘immediately’ free all hostages

“Not 2 or 5 or 7!” he wrote, adding that if Hamas complies, “things will change rapidly … IT WILL END!”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

US President Donald Trump demanded on Wednesday that Hamas “IMMEDIATELY give back all 20 hostages,” issuing the call in a post on Truth Social.

“Not 2 or 5 or 7!” he wrote, adding that if Hamas complies, “things will change rapidly … IT WILL END!” Trump’s remarks focused only on the 20 hostages believed to be alive rather than on the total 48 still held in Gaza.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum quickly responded, insisting that “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.”

The group urged the former president to push for the release of every captive.

The demand marked a different emphasis from Trump’s comments earlier this week, when he suggested that Israel’s military campaign was “hurting” its global image. In an interview published Monday, he said Israel “may be winning the war, but they are not winning in the court of public opinion.”

Meanwhile, Israel is pressing ahead with preparations for a Gaza City operation. The IDF has initiated its largest call-up since the war began, summoning 60,000 reservists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed soldiers in a recorded message, declaring, “We are working to defeat Hamas … what began in Gaza must end in Gaza.” He praised the troops for carrying out difficult decisions and said the country had reached “the stage of decision.”

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir reinforced the message during a tour of the Nachshonim Base in central Israel, vowing that the army would fight until Hamas is decisively defeated. “We will not stop the war until we defeat this enemy. Hamas will have no place to hide from us. Wherever we locate them, whether they are senior or junior figures, we strike them all, all the time,” Zamir told soldiers.

He added that the military has already begun a new phase of its Gaza maneuver. “We are already entering places we have never entered before and operating there with courage, strength, valor, and an extraordinary spirit,” he said, pledging that the IDF would “increase and enhance the strikes of our operation.”