Former President Donald Trump is casting doubt over the Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks, saying the terrorist organization cannot be trusted to return hostages, who he said are likely dead.
Mr. Trump has laid the blame for the rising tensions in the Middle East at the feet of President Biden, criticizing the Democrat for emboldening bad actors — including terrorist groups such as Hamas — and heightening the chances of World War III.
Mr. Biden and world leaders are hoping to get Israel and Hamas to strike a ceasefire deal that centers on freeing more Israeli hostages.
“Israel will find, very sadly, that there are far fewer hostages than currently being thought,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “That’s why it’s hard for Hamas to make a deal.
“They are no longer able to produce the people, because many of them are gone,” he said. “Hamas is incapable of holding Jewish people for a long period of time without killing them, and it will only get worse!”
The comments provide a glimpse into Mr. Trump’s latest thinking on the seven-month-old conflict, which he insists would never have happened on his watch.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was more optimistic. She told reporters Monday there has been “progress” in the ceasefire talks and the “onus is indeed on Hamas.”
Mr. Biden talked Monday to Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
“This has been a sustained effort and the United States is not alone in this effort,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said.
She noted a joint statement released last week in which Mr. Biden and 17 other world leaders demanded Hamas release “our citizens” without delay.
“It is a priority to get those hostages home,” she said. “It is a priority to get to a ceasefire and it is obviously a priority to get that all-important humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist raid on Israel killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and around 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Israel says more than 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza to destroy Hamas has resulted in more than 34,000 people killed and close to 80,000 injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Mr. Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend as the Israeli government edged closer to invading the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Hamas is thought to be holding hostages and more than a million Palestinians are sheltering from the violence.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also has urged Hamas to accept an Israeli proposal for a truce and to release the hostages.
Egypt on Monday hosted a Hamas delegation to discuss a possible ceasefire amid news reports that an Israeli airstrike had killed at least 20 Palestinians in Rafah.
“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Mr. Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The war between Israel and Hamas has sparked protests on college campuses across the nation where students say Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack has gone too far.
The blowback has renewed questions about the 81-year-old Biden’s ability to connect with a small, but vocal, contingent of young liberal voters who are more sympathetic than older generations toward the Palestinians. Those young voters have been a key element in winning Democratic coalitions in recent elections and losing them severely imperils Mr. Biden’s reelection.
The issue also has increased the criticism from Mr. Biden’s right flank.
Mr. Trump’s allies say the Democrat has mishandled the conflict by insulting Saudi Arabia as a candidate, all but ignoring the Abraham Accords when he took office, and not doing more to cultivate stronger ties with Israeli leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu.
As a result, they are skeptical of whether there is any way to prevent the conflict from putting a damper on possible long-term solutions.
“I am absolutely convinced out, there is no two-party solution in the near term, simply because the animus is so great,” Lt. General Keith Kellogg, who served as national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, told The Washington Times. “Not permanently. But today, I don’t think it’s on the table.”
Mr. Kellogg, the co-chair at the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, said the difference between the way Mr. Biden has handled the situation and how Mr. Trump would handle the problem is “apples and oranges.”
“The Biden administration looks at normalization, moderation — you know, both sides are involved. Both sides are good,” he said. “No, there is only one side, and I think that’s how President Trump looks at it.”
“When it comes from morality, somewhere along the line, you have to draw a line, you have to say I am for something, and I’m against something, and this is one of those times where we are for the Israelis and what they’re doing with Hamas.”
Mr. Kellogg also said he is not confident that the hostages are alive.
“You reach a point where you have to say go ahead and do the military operation,” he said. “It has been seven months.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.