White House on Trump ‘Hell to Pay’ Threat to Hamas: We Want Ceasefire Deal to Get Hostages, Hamas Is ‘Weakened’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby reacted to President-Elect Donald Trump’s threat of “hell to pay” for Hamas if they don’t release their hostages by stating that he’s not directly commenting on the incoming administration, but “what we have been doing and what we continue to do is try to get a ceasefire deal in place so that those hostages can come home and a surge of humanitarian assistance can come in.” And Hamas should agree to a deal since they’ve been “weakened.”

Host Neil Cavuto asked, “President-Elect Trump has already said to Hamas, it’d be crazy to keep this hostage thing going — I’m paraphrasing here, as you know — but they best be released or there’ll be hell to pay. What did you think of that and what do you think happens?”

Kirby responded, “I want to be careful. I’m not commenting on the President-Elect and what foreign policy objectives he’s pursuing or he’s thinking about pursuing. I can only tell you that what we have been doing and what we continue to do is try to get a ceasefire deal in place so that those hostages can come home and a surge of humanitarian assistance can come in. And, as we speak, we actually have counterparts here in the administration that are working on it. Jake Sullivan’s going to go to Israel, starting tomorrow, he’ll be there for the rest of the week, and this is going to be top on his agenda of things to talk to the Israelis about. The holdout continues to be Hamas. But if you’re Hamas right now, Neil, and you’re looking at the world around you, you realize, now, Hezbollah’s not coming to your assistance, Iran’s not coming to your assistance, you don’t have a whole lot of friends left. And they’re increasingly isolated and weakened. Now’s the time for the leaders of Hamas to come to the table, sign onto a deal, let’s get those hostages home, and let’s get the people of Gaza the humanitarian assistance that they so desperately need.”

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