Israel Briefing Day 517: Trump issues ‘last warning’ to Hamas

Trump stated that he had just met “with your former Hostages whose lives you have destroyed” and stressed: “This is your last warning.”

The President started his message citing the double meaning of the word Shalom. “‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye,” he wrote. “You can choose.” He added that he is “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job,” and “not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.” He called Hamas “sick and twisted” for keeping bodies and ended with a message to the Hamas leadership and one to the people of Gaza.

He concluded: “For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance. Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”

Trump did not give any more details and was unclear on what he meant by releasing hostages “now,” but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that nobody should doubt his seriousness. He told Fox News that Trump “doesn’t say these things and not mean it.”

In the meeting Trump held with former hostages, Eli Sharabi, widow of British-Israeli Hamas victim Lianne and father of two teen girls who were all killed by Hamas, told his story.

He told the President: “I was kidnapped on October 7. My wife and two daughters were murdered on the same day. I was held in captivity for 491 days. I suffered there from starvation, violence and humiliations daily. One time, they broke my ribs, and I was so hurt that I couldn’t breathe for a month. Thanks to President Trump, I’m a free man. I can hug my mother again. I can hug my brothers and sisters.”

The hostages also gave Trump a picture showing three Holocaust survivors after liberation with the caption “never again” and then three hostages with the caption “again.”

The revelation that the White House has been holding direct negotiations with Hamas emerged a few hours before Trump met the group. US presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler has led the talks, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt justified the move, saying: “The special envoy who is engaged in those negotiations does have the authority to talk to anyone.” She added that “Israel was consulted on this matter”.

The Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem released a statement saying it has made its opinion on the talks known to Washington but said no more. According to Axios, which first revealed the negotiations, they have focussed on freeing US-linked hostages but have also explored a wider agreement for all hostages and a long-term truce.

In domestic news, Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin moved yesterday to oust the Attorney General by calling for a no confidence measure, in a step that critics have labelled anti-democratic.

The AG is Israel’s top legal adviser and is responsible for ensuring government actions comply with the law. Levin says that the current incumbent, Gali Baharav-Miara, unfairly obstructs the government’s political moves and that ousting her is fair. But Bahrav-Miara’s supporters claim that this confirms their fears that the current government lacks respect for the legal system and will lead to politicians acting without legal restraints. In many respects, the discussion over the AG is a microcosm of the frictions over legal reform that were tearing Israel apart before the war started.

The decision came on precisely the day that Baharav-Miara took a step that clashed with the government. She instructed Defence Minister Israel Katz to consider sanctions against ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the army and instead study in yeshivot.

This is the latest development in the long-running battle over whether Charedi men should be required to complete army service like other Jewish Israelis. Some argue that the legal system struggles to justify the exemption for Charedi men, while in the political realm, the government depends on the ultra-Orthodox political parties for its survival, who oppose the draft.

On the opposition benches, there is outrage at the move to oust the AG. Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition Yesh Atid party, posted on X arguing that the objection to her has nothing to do with Israel’s de facto challenges but rather sectarian interests.

He wrote: “The AG didn’t stop them from crushing Gaza. And didn’t stop them from bombing Lebanon. And didn’t prevent them from entering the refugee camps in [the West Bank]. It didn’t forbid them from destroying the homes of terrorists. She only told them two things they needed to do: recruit evaders and stop transferring corrupt funds to the ultra-Orthodox under the table. That’s why they want to oust her. There’s no other reason.”

Elsewhere, six days after a terror ramming attack in northern Israel, one of the victims has died. Yaheli Gur, 17, succumbed to her wounds yesterday after being critically injured in the attack at Karkur Junction. Some 13 others were wounded when a Palestinian driver, who was illegally in Israel from the West Bank, rammed into people at a bus stop.

Meanwhile, with a humble admission of responsibility for the tragedies of 7 October 2023, Israel’s military Chief of Staff left his position yesterday.

Herzi Halevi said that the failures of that day are “my responsibility, and I bear and will bear this forever.” In a thinly veiled criticism of the Netanyahu government’s refusal to initiate a state commission of inquiry that would likely force political figures to also take responsibility, Halevi said: “The establishment of a state commission of inquiry is necessary and essential—not to place blame, but to understand the root of the problems.”

He handed over to his successor, Eyal Zamir, who vowed to defeat Hamas and revive public trust in the IDF. “The mission placed upon me from this day forward is clear: to lead the IDF to victory,” Zamir said. “We will not forgive, we will not forget. This is an existential war.”

Finally, Iran is trying to claw back influence in Syria, where it had an ally in the form of the Assad regime until it collapsed, with the establishment of a new terrorist organisation named The Islamic Resistance in Syria.

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