The Israeli newspaper Haaretz mocked US President-elect Donald Trump's threat to open the gates of "hell" on the Gaza Strip if the Israeli prisoners held by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on October 7, 2023 are not released.

On Monday, Trump threatened "those responsible" for the killing of American-Israeli prisoner Omar Neutra - who was previously believed to be alive in Gaza - that there would be "hell to pay" if the remaining prisoners were not released before his inauguration on January 20.

Trump wrote in a message posted on his social media platform Truth that those responsible for Neutra's killing would be "hit harder than anyone in the long and storied history of the United States of America," adding, "Release the prisoners now."

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced on Monday evening that 33 Israeli prisoners held by it had been killed since October 2023, and confirmed that most of them had been killed by the Israeli army’s bombing of various areas of the Gaza Strip.

Arrogance and resonant promises

In a report published by Haaretz, Israeli journalist Rachel Fink mocked the contents of the letter sent by the US president-elect, describing its style as including a series of sentences and resonant promises supported by claims that reflect unparalleled arrogance, power and strength.

She said people forgot that Trump was the same man who had promised during his 2020 campaign, before he first took office, to force Mexico to pay for a wall along its border with the United States, who had always sworn that he would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with a new one, eliminate the national debt, set term limits for Congress, and bail out the coal industry.

He forgot his previous claims.

She added that a state of collective amnesia may have made people ignore Trump’s claims that his first administration handled the coronavirus pandemic better than any other country, or that he rebuilt the US military, created the greatest economy in history, and single-handedly brokered peace in the Middle East.

Fink criticized some Israeli officials who cheered Trump's statements, noting that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich thanked the president-elect, as did Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented at the start of the cabinet meeting on Monday, saying that Trump "focused on the right place, which is Hamas, and not on the Israeli government, as is customary."

Hell did not set the prisoners free

The Israeli journalist addressed a message to Trump himself, drawing his attention to the fact that the Gaza Strip has been reduced to ruin and destruction, that tens of thousands of its residents have been killed, and that there are a greater number of wounded and maimed, and that those who remain alive are crowded into temporary tents, while stray dogs roam among the rubble "to feed on the bodies of the dead."

She concluded her message by asking Trump whether he would open the gates of hell on Gaza as he had promised. But she preferred to answer the question herself, saying that the Palestinians had long since passed through hell, and that the breaking news was that that hell had not freed the prisoners.