US President-elect Donald Trump said, "The Middle East will pay a heavy price if the hostages held in the Gaza Strip are not released before his inauguration on January 20."

It is noteworthy that during the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack on Israel on November 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants captured more than 250 people, according to Israeli statistics, including dual Israeli-American citizens.

About half of the 101 foreign and Israeli hostages still being held incommunicado in Gaza are believed to be alive.

In his most explicit comments on the hostages’ fate since his election on November 5, Trump threatened on social media: “If the hostages are not released by January 20, 2025, the date on which I proudly assume office as President of the United States, there will be a heavy price to pay in the Middle East, and to those responsible for these atrocities against humanity,” referring to Hamas.

Trump added: "Those responsible will be hit harder than anyone in the long and storied history of the United States of America." Hamas has called for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal to release the remaining hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue until Hamas was eliminated and no longer posed a threat to Israel.

Hamas said on Monday that 33 hostages in Gaza had been killed during the nearly 14-month war between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in the blockaded territory, without giving their nationalities.

Israel launched its brutal war on the Gaza Strip immediately after the Al-Aqsa Flood attack, which led to the death of more than 45 thousand Palestinian citizens, the disappearance of more than 10 thousand, and the injury of more than 100 thousand citizens, the overwhelming majority of whom are women and children according to United Nations reports, in addition to the displacement of all the residents of the Strip from one place to another after the destruction of more than 80% of the Strip.

In a related matter, US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savitt described on Sunday the video released by Hamas of Israeli-American citizen Aiden Alexander (which angered Trump) as “a harsh reminder of the movement’s terrorism against citizens of multiple countries, including the United States,” noting that President Joe Biden’s administration had contacted Alexander’s family.

“The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of the people of Gaza would end immediately — and it would have ended months ago — if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,” the White House statement said. “They have refused to do so, but as the President said last week, we have a critical opportunity to make a deal to release the hostages, stop the war, and increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”