Donald Trump says released Gaza hostages look like Holocaust survivors – Israel News

President Trump on Sunday said he was losing patience with the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas after seeing footage of the Palestinian terror group releasing Israeli hostages over the weekend, whose appearance he compared to Holocaust survivors.

“They look like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. “I don’t know how much longer we can take that … at some point we’re going to lose our patience.”

Trump’s reaction to seeing images of the three hostages, who appeared gaunt upon their release on Saturday, brought fresh uncertainty over the deal’s fate given 76 hostages remain in Gaza. It also came days after the president called for the removal of Palestinians from Gaza and for the US to take control of it.

“I know we have a deal … they dribble in and keep dribbling in … but they are in really bad shape,” Trump said of the Israeli hostages.

Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami, and Eli Sharabi appeared on Saturday morning, looking very frail with sunken faces, and received many similar comments on both social media and from Israeli government officials.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) stated that “the shocking images that we have seen today will not go unaddressed.”

President Isaac Herzog added, “This is what a crime against humanity looks like!”

The Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch stated that Israel views Hamas’ “repeated violations” with “grave concern” and the condition of the hostages “with even greater concern,” adding that “this will not go unaddressed” in a statement posted on PMO’s official X/Twitter account.

Sa’ar’s statements

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar commented that the “entire international community has danced to the tune of the false propaganda of so-called ‘starvation’ in Gaza.” comparing criticism of Israel’s humanitarian aid levels to the treatment of Israeli hostages by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists.

“The images don’t lie,” Sa’ar added, explicitly stating that Levy, Ben Ami, and Sharabi looked like “Holocaust survivors” and “are the only ones…who clearly appear to have suffered from starvation.”