‘Remember October 7’: Trump Backs Increased Israeli Military Pressure on Hamas to Free Hostages and End Gaza War

Latest Developments

Trump Says Situation Must Change for Hamas to Release Hostages: President Donald Trump remarked that Hamas is “not likely going to let the hostages out in the current situation,” during an interview with Axios on August 11. Trump added that more military pressure needed to be applied to the Iran-backed terrorist organization, which should not be allowed to stay in Gaza after the war’s end. “I have one thing to say: remember October 7, remember October 7,” he said, referencing Hamas’s October 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel that sparked the war. Trump avoided directly endorsing Israel’s newly announced plan to finally dislodge Hamas from the coastal enclave, including areas the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as Hamas’s “last stronghold” in Gaza City.
‘We Don’t Want to Stay in Gaza’: Netanyahu emphasized that the forthcoming offensive did not signal a permanent occupation, saying, “We want a security belt right next to our border, but we don’t want to stay in Gaza.” He added that Israel plans to move civilians out of Gaza City to humanitarian zones where they would be provided with humanitarian aid. He also outlined what he called “five principles for concluding the war,” which included the disarmament of Hamas, freedom for the hostages, demilitarization of Gaza, overriding Israeli security control, and the establishment of a peaceful, non-Israeli civil administration that would not include Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
Italy Denounces Israel: The Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision to expand military operations in Gaza received significant backlash, including from traditional allies. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, whose government has been among the more supportive of Israel’s defense efforts within the European Union, said that Israel’s government has “lost reason and humanity” and that European leaders must “find a way to force Netanyahu to think clearly.” Crosetto also said Italy would implement sanctions on Israel and compared Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin. His colleague, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, separately warned that the “invasion of Gaza risks turning into a Vietnam for Israeli soldiers.”

FDD Expert Response

“Netanyahu’s unveiling of five principles to end the war was the right move. However, this kind of clarity should have been delivered within days of the October 7 Hamas-led massacre. Since then, Israel’s war messaging has been muddied with mixed signals about the IDF’s objectives. On the battlefield, Hamas is no match for the IDF, but in the information war, Israel’s slow, inconsistent public relations messaging has given Hamas a significant opening to narrow the gap. Hamas has understood this chronic weakness of the Israeli government for many years and has leveraged it accordingly.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

“The international pressure to end the war will paradoxically guarantee future strife. By focusing almost exclusively on Israel, without similar pressure on Hamas to disband, the international community is helping preserve the terrorist group as the ruling party in Gaza. An understandable aversion to horrific images and information coming out of the territory — part of Hamas’s public relations scheme — is swaying foreign leaders to freeze the conflict in place. But kicking the can down the road is not a strategy.” — David May, Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst