US President Donald Trump asserts that the Hamas terror group “didn’t want to make a deal” on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters in Washington before departing for a trip to Scotland, Trump says that with only a small number of hostages remaining, Hamas “doesn’t have any bargaining chips” left to negotiate.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” he says.
He adds that he believes that now the group’s leaders are “going to be hunted down.”
Asked about French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that he would recognize a Palestinian state, Trump says that the move “doesn’t carry weight,” but calls Macron “a good guy.”
Trump made the comments a day after his Middle East peace envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal.
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