{"id":210880,"date":"2025-01-08T18:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T18:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/gazans-react-to-trumps-comments-about-hostages\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T18:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T18:56:14","slug":"gazans-react-to-trumps-comments-about-hostages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/gazans-react-to-trumps-comments-about-hostages\/","title":{"rendered":"Gazans React to Trump\u2019s Comments About Hostages"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/08\/multimedia\/08trump-gaza01-ljwm\/08trump-gaza01-ljwm-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Gazans React to Trump\u2019s Comments About Hostages\" title=\"Gazans React to Trump\u2019s Comments About Hostages\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For more than a year, almost two million Palestinians living in Gaza have <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unrwa.org\/resources\/reports\/unrwa-situation-report-153-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">been homeless<\/a>, facing <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wfp.org\/news\/new-gaza-food-security-assessment-sees-famine-risk-persisting-amid-ongoing-fighting-and#:~:text=The%20IPC%20report%20highlights%20that,supply%20lines%20remain%20severely%20restricted.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">severe food<\/a> and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=czAMzV8cj-w\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">medical shortages<\/a> and under enduring threat of Israeli airstrikes. Nearly 46,000 Gazans have been killed, local health officials said on Wednesday, in a landscape largely reduced to rubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So when President-elect Donald J. Trump <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/07\/us\/politics\/trump-hostages-hamas.html\" title=\"\">vowed that<\/a> \u201call hell will break out in the Middle East\u201d if hostages taken from Israel during the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/issue\/world\/2024\/10\/21\/the-oct-7-attacks\" title=\"\">Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023<\/a>, are not freed in the next two weeks, Gazans were left to wonder: if this is not hell, then what is?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI am not sure he understands the situation here \u2014 it is already hell,\u201d said Alaa Isam, 33, from Deir al Balah, in central Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/06\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hamas-hostage-list-cease-fire.html\" title=\"\">Negotiations to end the war<\/a> between Israel and Hamas have made little progress, leaving civilians in Gaza caught in the crossfire with little hope for the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have been being killed for 15 months,\u201d Mr. Isam said. \u201cWe have been through two cold winters in tents, two hot summers that ruined our food. We have been subject to starvation and people died out of hunger, in addition to the continuous brutal bombardment of everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to hurt the negotiation\u201d for a hostage exchange and a cease-fire agreement that remain under discussion. Mr. Trump\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/13\/world\/middleeast\/huckabee-israel-witkoff-middle-east-us.html\" title=\"\">incoming top Middle East envoy<\/a>, Steven Witkoff, is expected to join those talks in Doha, Qatar, later this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Trump was explicit about threatening consequences should Hamas refuse to release about 100 remaining hostages \u2014 at least a third of whom are presumed dead \u2014 who were taken from Israeli territory and have been held since the militant group led the attack on Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf the deal isn\u2019t done before I take office, which is now going to be two weeks, all hell will break out in the Middle East,\u201d Mr. Trump added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His comments reverberated Wednesday across Gaza, including with some civilians who understood the threat to mean that Palestinians would be punished and not Israel if an agreement on the hostages is not reached by Jan. 20, when Mr. Trump is inaugurated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Akram al-Satri, 47, a freelance translator from Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said he found it strange that Mr. Trump \u201cdoes not realize that Gaza has been deprived of all forms of life, and that he thinks he could add to that hell while Israel had not been spared any effort in turning the lives of Gazans into something far uglier than hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAll of us who witness bombs dropping over our heads daily\u201d were living \u201ca reality that is more destructive and miserable than hell,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While most Gazans mainly blame Israel for the death and destruction around them, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/15\/world\/middleeast\/hamas-gaza-israel-war.html\" title=\"\">many also say they hold Hamas responsible<\/a> for starting the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHamas should have reached an agreement long time ago,\u201d said Abdul Aziz Said, 33, who is also from Deir al Balah. \u201cThey say ending the war is their priority, but do not act like this is the case. I know Israel is not offering them anything serious, but I don\u2019t care. I want this killing to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Witkoff on Tuesday struck an optimistic tone that a deal could soon be reached. \u201cI think that we\u2019ve had some really great progress, and I\u2019m really hopeful that by the inaugural we\u2019ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,\u201d he said, standing next to Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Regardless of the war\u2019s outcome, several Gazans interviewed on Wednesday said they feared a continuation of the pro-Israel policies Mr. Trump pursued in his first term, from 2017 to 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In those years, the American Embassy in Israel was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which Palestinians also claim as their capital, and the United States also recognized Israel\u2019s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967. Palestinians and their allies in Arab states also worry that Mr. Trump will not stop Israel from annexing more disputed areas in the West Bank and occupying at least parts of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But many Palestinians have fumed over the past year that the United States, under President Biden, has not done more to protect them from Israeli strikes that have leveled their cities and halted humanitarian aid deliveries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Just this past week, the Biden administration informed Congress that it would allow American weapons producers to sell <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/03\/us\/politics\/us-weapons-israel.html\" title=\"\">$8 billion in arms to Israel<\/a>, including 500-pound bombs that can cause significant injury and death, especially in areas with little protection, like tent camps. Many of the weapons would most likely be shipped over the next two years, but some could be delivered within months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe engine of this entire ugly and unjust offensive is America,\u201d said Amna Soliman, 42, a former teacher at the American International School in Gaza. \u201cThere is nothing left of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Forced to flee her home in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, Ms. Soliman said that at least a half-dozen of her relatives had died and that she had lost her job since the start of the war\u2019s \u201chellish reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are already living in fear and worry and horror,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/world\/middleeast\/trump-hostages-gaza-israel.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For more than a year, almost two million Palestinians living in Gaza have been homeless, facing severe food and medical shortages and under enduring threat of Israeli airstrikes. Nearly 46,000 Gazans have been killed, local health officials said on Wednesday, in a landscape largely reduced to rubble. So when President-elect Donald J. Trump vowed that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/08\/multimedia\/08trump-gaza01-ljwm\/08trump-gaza01-ljwm-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2102,163575,32652,3451,5552,193,3096,8527,7507,52,1734],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210882,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210880\/revisions\/210882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}