Trump says Israel needs ‘victory’ in Gaza, expresses doubt that many hostages are still alive

In the first sit-down interview since his electoral victory last month, US President-elect Donald Trump tells NBC News that he does not think many of the hostages held in Gaza are alive, 14 months on from the October 7 Hamas onslaught in southern Israel.

“I’m not a big believer in the fact that there are too many of them living, sadly,” he says, when asked about the 96 hostages still believed to be captive in Gaza.

“I’ve seen the way they’ve been treated,” he says, recalling a video he had seen of “a young girl that was pulled by her hair violently and thrown into the back of a car like she was a sack of potatoes.”

It is not immediately clear who Trump is referring to.

“I hate to say it, I think you have far fewer hostages than people think,” he tells NBC. “It’s only my opinion, but I’ve been right on just about everything.”

Asked whether he would pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza, where Israel has been battling Hamas, Trump says: “Yeah. Sure.”

“I want him to end it, but you have to have a victory,” he says. “People forget about October 7…I noticed that a lot of people are saying ‘Oh, it never really happened.’ That’s like the Holocaust,” Trump continues. “You know, you have Holocaust deniers. Now you have October 7th deniers, and it just happened. No, October 7th happened. And I’ve seen the pictures. It is — what happened is horrible.”