US President Donald Trump speaks at a dinner with Senate Republicans on Feb. 7, 2025. (AP/Ben Curtis)
After Hamas flouts his ultimatum, releasing just three hostages over the weekend, President Trump says Israel has discretion how to respond.
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a green light to take whatever course of action Israel deems necessary against the Hamas terror organization, after Hamas ignored Trump’s ultimatum last week.
Speaking at the Daytona 500 on Sunday, the president noted that while Hamas had not released all the remaining hostages on Saturday as he had demanded last week, three hostages – including a dual Israeli-American citizen – were returned to Israel.
“Now, the reason I made that statement was because [Hamas] said they weren’t going to deliver, they were not going to deliver the people that they said they were going to deliver, that they agreed to deliver,” Trump explained.
“When I made the statement, they delivered everybody plus an American.”
“Now, the good news is they look like they’re in pretty good shape because the people from the week before didn’t look like they were in good shape. They looked like Holocaust survivors, frankly. Horrible. Whatever happened to them was horrible.”
Last week, after Hamas threatened to delay the release of hostages slated for return to Israel on Saturday, Trump warned that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not free all remaining hostages by noon on Saturday.
Netanyahu threatened to resume the war in the Gaza Strip if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages, but did not specify how many Israel would need to avert a return to the war.
In his statement on Sunday, Trump said it would be “up to Israel” to respond to the limited hostage release, adding that Netanyahu can “do whatever you want” with regards to the war in Gaza.
“That will be up to Israel, what the next step is – in consultation with me,” Trump said.
“I told Bibi, you do whatever you want because, you know, my statement was they’ve got to come back.”
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