FLASH
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For months, the US president has been issuing threats against Hamas, warning the group to release Israeli captives or face consequences.
In his latest warning today, Donald Trump said the group would be in "big trouble" if it used the captives as "human shields" in the path of Israel's systematic destruction of Gaza City, where about a million Palestinians live.
Yesterday, he made a similar threat, saying that if reports that Hamas was moving prisoners overland were true, "all their bets will end up wrong."
Earlier this month, Trump also issued what he called a “final warning” to Hamas. Even before taking office in January, Trump threatened Hamas that “all hell will break loose” if the captives were not released.
But it seems that Washington can do little to Hamas and the Palestinians that Israel has not already done. Most of Hamas's leadership, including its political and military leaders, have been killed.
The White House may allow Israel to escalate its military campaign in Gaza, which has been widely described by academics, United Nations officials and human rights groups as genocide. Yet the US, under both Trump and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, has done little to restrain its ally from the start.
It is also difficult to apply Trump's preferred methods of tightening foreign policy, tariffs and sanctions, to Hamas. The group has long been labeled a "foreign terrorist organization" by the US, so its assets and interests are subject to maximum sanctions.
Whenever asked about the situation in Gaza, Trump mentions his efforts to free Israeli prisoners, but Hamas has repeatedly agreed to proposals that would release them all as part of a lasting ceasefire.
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