Donald Trump made two major claims about the Israel–Gaza conflict in a press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday – but do they stand up to scrutiny?
The US president hosted the Israeli prime minister in Florida on Monday as American officials try to push both Israel and Hamas into the second phase of its Gaza peace plan.
The strategy, adopted in October, is now meant to turn the delicate ceasefire established in the first stage, into a sustainable settlement.
While supposedly encouraging Netanyahu to pull his troops back from Gaza, Trump also claimed there “will be hell to pay” for the Palestinian militants unless they full disarm – and soon.
The president also talked up the impact he’s had on the war and outlined a rough timeline – two claims which have been efficiently taken apart in the last day…
1. The Real Impact Of The Biden Administration
The US president claimed “just about” every Hamas hostage was released by his White House team – but that’s not true.
Trump told the press: “Every hostage just about that has been released was released because of me, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner – my whole team – Pete Hegseth – they were all released because of us.
“None were released because of the Biden administration. None. Then, we had a lack of releases with respect to the dead, and all of sudden they start coming. back.”
Joe Biden’s administration actually pushed Hamas to release 138 hostages via a series of deals.
Hamas also released many individuals sporadically during the first 10 months of the year, before Trump’s ceasefire deal came into place.
It has freed 20 living hostages and returned the bodies of 27 dead hostages since the US agreement was introduced in October.
Out of the 251 people taken captive on Israeli soil back on October 7, 2023, only the body of one – 24-year-old Ran Gvili who was killed during the Hamas attack – is yet to be sent home to his relatives.
Returning the remains of every hostage is a key part of the ceasefire deal.
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