US rebuts Hamas’s ‘entirely impractical’ ceasefire demands
Apparent rejection of new offer to free US-Israeli hostage dashes hopes of progress but will please Tel Aviv
The Trump administration has accused Hamas of making “entirely impractical” demands and stalling on a deal to release a US-Israeli hostage, in exchange for an extension of the Gaza ceasefire
The office of Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and the US national security council said in a statement,
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“Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not”
“Hamas is well aware of the deadline and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes”
It said, adding that Trump had already vowed Hamas would “pay a severe price” for not freeing hostages
A week ago Trump repeated a threat to destroy Hamas in a “last warning” to release the hostages but it is unclear exactly to which of several potential deadlines the new statement referred
