US President Donald Trump on Saturday called Hamas’s treatment of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip “disgraceful,” and noted the poor health of those who have been returned under the current ceasefire deal.
Trump’s remarks were echoed by his Secretary of State Mark Rubio, who said that the terror group’s behavior is “savagery,” while US Deputy Mideast Envoy Morgan Ortagus called Gaza a “depraved society.”
Their comments came as six hostages were released from Hamas captivity. The six — Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — were the last living hostages expected to be freed under the ceasefire‘s first phase, which expires in a week. Talks on the ceasefire’s second phase are yet to start.
The men all looked frail and many had noticeably suffered dramatic weight loss. Most of the 30 living hostages returned during the first stage have been gaunt and suffered from severe malnutrition. Some had injuries from physical abuse.
Trump told reporters the six hostages released by Hamas are “not in great shape.”
“We had a lot of news over the last 24 hours,” he said. “We had the hostages given back today — it’s disgraceful what’s going on there. They’re not in great shape, but we’ve also seen them in worse shape.”
“What a terrible situation it is,” he added.
Speaking earlier at the Conservative Political Action Committee in Washington, Trump noted many of the hostages are returning dead from Gaza, adding that it is important to get them back.
Trump called out by name several survivors of Hamas captivity in the audience, including Noa Argamani and Ilana Gritzewsky.
He then joined others in the audience in a round of applause for the pair.
“What a beautiful group of people,” he said.
Argamani has been a prominent advocate for the hostages on the world stage since she was rescued by Israeli forces in June last year. Gritzewsky was released on November 30, 2023, as part of an extension of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel. Her partner Matan Zangauker is still captive.
Rubio said the terror group must free the remaining 63 hostages it is holding, or face its demise.
“Hamas’s treatment of hostages, including its brutal murder of the Bibas family, further illustrates their savagery and is yet another reason why we are saying these terrorists must release all of the hostages immediately or be destroyed,” Rubio wrote on social media platform X, referring to Shiri Bibas and her two small children, Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped from their Nir Oz home on October 7.
Israel says Ariel, 4 when he was abducted, and Kfir, who was 10 months old, were murdered by their captors in November 2023. Shiri Bibas was also killed, though her body was only returned to Israel late Friday after Hamas initially sent the remains of a Gaza woman instead. Husband and father Yarden Bibas was kidnapped separately and released alive earlier this month.
Before their remains were returned on Thursday, Hamas put the Bibas boys’ coffins on a stage in Khan Younis in front of a giant poster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire, alongside the coffin of octogenarian peace activist Oded Lifshitz, also killed in captivity, as they paraded the victims before cheering crowds, drawing widespread revulsion.
Pointing to the crowd of hundreds in Gaza that were seen “cheering” during the ceremony, Deputy Mideast Envoy Ortagus called Gaza a “depraved society.”
“You have… a society that has to not only be demilitarized, but has to be deradicalized,” Ortagus told Fox News, also noting that Gazan civilians took part in October 7 atrocities, including abductions.
“President Trump sent a very clear and strong signal about the deradicalization that has to happen to this population,” she said Saturday, apparently referring to remarks at a press conference with Netanyahu when Trump called for the US to take over Gaza and permanently remove its residents.
“If you didn’t believe President Trump a few weeks ago, look at the image of the crowd clapping and cheering as babies go back in their coffins into Israel, without their mother,” Ortagus said.
Israel said Saturday that it would delay the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who had been slated to go free Saturday until Jerusalem receives assurances regarding the end of the “humiliating ceremonies” staged by Hamas when hostages are handed over.
The prisoners were to be freed as part of the deal for the release of the six hostages freed by Hamas earlier in the day. But with Israelis fuming over the handling of the transfer of the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two small children, and new anger sparked by a propaganda video showing hostages being brought to a ceremony where others were being freed, Netanyahu said Israel would demand an end to the gauche fanfare before resuming freeing prisoners.
Israel’s announcement abruptly put the future of the truce into further doubt. The ceasefire had halted over 15 months of war triggered by the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 63 hostages, including 62 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 36 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers and five Thai nationals; and the bodies of four slain Israeli captives — Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz — during the ceasefire that began in January.
The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 63 hostages.