Trump wrote on the “Truth Social” platform on Wednesday evening, calling on Hamas to immediately release the Israeli prisoners and hostages held in Gaza. He explained that once they are handed over, the war in the region will end. The American president said, “Tell Hamas to immediately return all twenty hostages (not 2 or 5 or 7), and everything will change quickly,” adding, “The war will end.”
Israel resumed its bombing of the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a pause of nearly two months, specifically since the ceasefire agreement with Hamas began on January 19, following stalled negotiations to extend the first phase of the agreement or move to its second phase.
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was supposed to continue once the first phase, which ended on March 1, was extended or its second phase commenced. However, disagreements between Israel and Hamas regarding the next steps prevented this from happening.
For his part, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed Moscow’s concern over the escalation in the Gaza Strip and the resulting civilian casualties, affirming that Moscow is closely monitoring the situation and is looking forward to returning to the path of peace.
