Trump: Patience with Hamas running out, freed hostages ‘looked like Holocaust survivors’
US president says emaciated captives freed on Saturday ‘look like they’ve aged 25 years’ and ‘have been treated brutally,’ adding: ‘I don’t know how much longer we can take that’
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that the three Israeli hostages who were released by Hamas a day earlier looking gaunt and frail resembled Jews under Nazi Germany, and warned that “at some point, we’re gonna lose our patience.”
Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami “looked like Holocaust survivors,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. “They were in horrible condition, they were emaciated… and I don’t know how much longer we can take that.”
He went on to say the trio “look like they haven’t had a meal in a month,” and that they are “people that were healthy people a reasonably short number of years ago, and you look at them today, they look like they’ve aged 25 years, they literally look like the old pictures of Holocaust survivors, the same thing. No reason for that.”
Trump noted that according to the current ceasefire and hostage deal, captives are supposed to “keep dribbling in,” but added: “They are in really bad shape, they have been treated brutally, horribly. Even the ones that came out earlier, they were in a little bit better shape, but mentally they were treated so badly. Who could take that?
“You know, at some point, we’re gonna lose our patience.”
The comments came amid fresh uncertainty over whether the ceasefire deal will be seen through until all remaining 76 hostages are freed, and days after the US president called for the removal of Palestinians from the enclave and for the US to take control of it.
I watched the hostages come back today. And they looked like Holocaust surivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emacitated. It looked like many years ago the Holocaust survivors. I don't know how much longer we can take that…We're going to lose our patience"
– Trump pic.twitter.com/axyUrhlzPG— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) February 9, 2025
Trump also told reporters he remained committed to having the US buy and take ownership of Gaza after Palestinians leave or are removed from the enclave, a surprise announcement he made February 4 during Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington. He said other countries may take part in rebuilding sections of Gaza.
“As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it, other people may do it, through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back.”
The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
After some fifteen months of fighting, a three-stage hostage-ceasefire deal was reached in January 2025, which would see Hamas release the hostages, Israel release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners, and a stop to fighting in Gaza, alongside negotiations that would ultimately result in a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave.
Seventy-three of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 currently remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 21 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and Thai nationals — during the current, ongoing ceasefire. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
