White House says Trump ‘fully supports’ Israeli actions in Gaza
Press secretary says ‘Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives,’ US fully behind IDF; EU leaders say they ‘deplore’ truce’s collapse, Hamas’s ‘refusal to release hostages’
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump “fully supports” this week’s resumption of IDF military activities in Gaza, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday, after being asked whether Trump is working to restore the ceasefire in Gaza.
“The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages, there would be all hell to pay. Unfortunately, Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives,” Leavitt told reporters outside the White House, apparently referring to the terror group’s Friday announcement that it had agreed to release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander along with four other dual nationals.
The offer was based on what Hamas officials had discussed with US hostage envoy Adam Boehler earlier this month, but the group failed to give the Trump aide a final answer in those secret meetings, a senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.
After those direct talks were leaked to the press by Israel, the Trump administration closed the direct channel, the Arab diplomat said.
Accordingly, when Hamas said Friday that it was prepared to release the American hostages, the Trump administration was no longer interested. US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff by then had already presented his bridge proposal to extend phase one of the deal and called the Hamas offer a “nonstarter” on Sunday.
“This situation is completely the fault of Hamas when they launched that brutal attack on Israel on October 7. The president has made it very clear that he wants all of those hostages to come home,” Leavitt told reporters.
Trump “fully supports Israel and the IDF and the actions that they have taken in recent days,” she added.
The White House quickly came out in support of Israel’s renewed bombing campaign of terror targets overnight Monday-Tuesday, but the president himself has yet to comment.
On Wednesday, the State Department called on Hamas to seize Witkoff’s bridge proposal while it remains on the table.
Also on Thursday, EU leaders put out a statement saying that they “deplore” the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, and called out Hamas’s refusal to release hostages.
“The European Council deplores the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, which has caused a large number of civilian casualties in recent air strikes. It deplores the refusal of Hamas to hand over the remaining hostages,” the statement read.
The Hamas-run health ministry says hundreds of people have been killed and wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since combat renewed on Tuesday. Israel denies targeting civilians and has said it killed several top Hamas leaders during the recent return to active fighting in Gaza.
Much of Gaza now lies in ruins after 15 months of fighting, which erupted on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages into Gaza.
The Israeli campaign in response has killed more than 48,000 people, according to unverified numbers from Hamas health authorities, and destroyed much of the housing and infrastructure in the enclave, including the hospital system. Israel says it had killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January 2025, and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
