Trump’s “Genocidal” Threat to Gaza: If Hamas Won’t Release Hostages, “You Are DEAD”

As the White House said Wednesday it is holding secret talks with Hamas, President Donald Trump took to social media to threaten not just the Palestinian militant and political group but also the entire population of Gaza. 

“Release all of the Hostages now … or it is OVER for you,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on his account on Truth Social.

He then broadened his threats.

“Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits,” Trump wrote. “But not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”

Trump has leveled similar threats toward Hamas in the past, such as his promise before taking office in January that “all hell will break out” in the Middle East if the hostages weren’t released — a message he repeated during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. But Trump’s language aimed at the broader Palestinian population stands out as a call for civilian slaughter in a place where at least 48,000 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas, with thousands more buried under rubble.

“If he’s addressing the people of Gaza in their collective, and then he follows that up with a threat and says ‘You’re dead if you don’t do X, Y Z,’ that is genocidal rhetoric,” said Khaled Elgindy, visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. “He’s threatening an entire population with death – what else is that other than genocidal?” 

Trump’s statement follows the roll-out of his “Gaza Riviera” plan for the U.S. to occupy and “take over” Gaza, displacing Palestinians during the rebuilding process. Palestinians, Arab leaders, rights groups, and the United Nations have condemned his call to forcibly expel residents of Gaza as ethnic cleansing. Trump’s latest threats are an outgrowth of this Gaza plan, said Elgindy who helped negotiate deals between Palestinian leadership and Israel in the past. 

“This is the same president who put forward a plan that amounts to ethnic cleansing and so it is perfectly consistent to continue in that same vein and put forward a policy that amounts to an endorsement of genocidal acts,” Elgindy said.

Israel’s far-right similarly advocates for eradicating Palestinians from Gaza, as well as the West Bank, where Israeli military invasions and annexation of Palestinian land have accelerated under Netanyahu and since October 7, 2023. 

Leaders of Arab nations this week endorsed an alternate plan that would put Palestine on a path toward a two-state solution, keep Palestinians in Gaza during the process of rebuilding and establish a temporary governing authority made up of independent experts and the deployment of international peacekeepers. The U.S. and Israel both rejected the plan. 

Trump’s statement included a continued pledge to continue “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job.” Last week, the Trump administration approved a new weapons deal with Israel worth about $3 billion in arms, including more than 35,500 MK-84 and BLU-117 bombs, also known as 2,000-pound bombs.

However, the White House confirmed Wednesday that U.S. diplomats are engaged with Hamas in talks to release the remaining hostages captured during Hamas’ October 7 attack, according to Axios. Until now, the U.S. had refused to enter diplomacy with Hamas due to long-standing policy against speaking diplomatically with groups it has listed as terrorists (The U.S. listed Hamas as a terror group in 1997). Instead, U.S. officials have communicated through other nations, such as Qatar and Egypt in the lead-up to the ceasefire agreement. 

During the ceasefire’s first stage, Hamas released Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. But last week, Israel refused to enter the second phase of that ceasefire plan, which required the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and further prisoner swaps. Israel had floated a new plan – credited to real estate developer and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff – that would extend the ceasefire’s first stage and allow the Israeli military to operate in Gaza for another 40 days. Hamas rejected the plan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retaliated by restricting humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, a likely war crime violation, just as Ramadan began. 

The timing of Trump’s latest threats prompt further questions on the U.S. position. Is Trump undermining his administration’s own diplomacy, using bluster as a smokescreen, or signaling to Israel that the U.S. is on board with Netanyahu’s demand to cancel the ceasefire?

“At a minimum, the Israelis will take it as a license to do whatever they want to do,” he said.

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