Israel to take 'kinetic action' on Hamas if Gaza hostages not freed, Boehler tells CNN
If Hamas does not act towards a ceasefire and return the hostages, "Israel is going to have to take some kinetic action," the Trump administration's Special Envoy for Hostage Response, Adam Boehler, threatened on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday.
Kinetic action is a euphemistic phrase used to describe active warfare, including using lethal force.
Israel has "a new sense of ability to get something done," following the successful airstrike campaign against Iran, Boehler told CNN's Jake Tapper.
Tapper asked Boehler how close a deal with Hamas is and what the remaining sticking points are to get hostages home.
In response, Boehler noted that he is optimistic as the Trump administration's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has been "leaning in really closely on a deal, and he's done it on Israel...the Israelis want something done."
'Hamas is very hard-headed'
However, Boehler also stated that "Hamas is very hard-headed," confirming his personal experience negotiating with the terror group.
"They have been offered many things that they should take, and it is time for Hamas to release the hostages," he noted.
Israel is "bending over backwards" to get Hamas to agree, Boehler added.
Boehler also highlighted that two murdered hostages, Itay Chen and Omer Neutra are US nationals, stating "We need to get those Americans out, we need to get the other hostages out."
We have told Hamas that there is a "firm pathway to negotiate peace, and that's the best they are going to get," Boehler said.
Hamas should take the deal, and every time that they have not, the offer goes down, he added.
"My recommendation to Hamas would be to take the deal that Israel and the US are offering you, let's get some people home, and let's move to end this conflict," Boehler concluded.
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New York Post
20 minutes ago
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Washington Post
21 minutes ago
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Syrian-American executed during violence in Sweida, relatives say
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Fox News
21 minutes ago
- Fox News
Huckabee hits back at Western countries that 'side' with terror group Hamas
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee lashed out at almost 30 Western countries who on Monday called for Israel to end the war in Gaza, saying in a post on X that "when Hamas thinks you do good work, you are doing evil." "How embarrassing for a nation to side w/ a terror group like Hamas & blame a nation whose civilians were massacred for fighting to get hostages released," wrote Huckabee after Hamas – whose Oct. 7, 2023, mass terror attack on Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza – said it welcomed "the contents of the joint statement issued by the United Kingdom Government along with 25 other countries, calling for an immediate end to the war on the Gaza Strip." The U.S. and EU-designated terror group also reiterated its claims that Israel was carrying out a "policy of starvation" on the coastal enclave amid unverified reports that people have died due to hunger-related reasons. Fox News Digital has not been able to independently verify such reports. "The statement's condemnation of the killing of over 800 Palestinian civilians at the gates of U.S.-Israeli-controlled aid checkpoints underscores the brutality of this mechanism," Hamas wrote following a statement issued by the U.K. Foreign Office and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy. "The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths," read Lammy's statement, which was also signed by the foreign ministers of 28 countries. "If Hamas embraces you – you are in the wrong place," Israel's Foreign Minister Gidon Saar responded on X. "Hamas's praise for the statement by the group of countries is the best proof of the mistake they made – part of them out of good intentions and part of them out of an obsession against Israel." 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"Every moment, new cases of malnutrition and starvation are arriving at Gaza's hospitals," he said. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv who has been monitoring the situation in Gaza closely, told Fox News Digital that he was "not aware of a single official report that people died because of starvation or hunger." "I'm not familiar with any such report, but I am familiar with many warnings that were published by international organizations about the catastrophe that exists in Gaza and how in two months or so, 40 or 50,000 people will die because of hunger, but nobody has died because of hunger, because there is no hunger," he said, adding, "if there are some local problems of supply, it is because of Hamas – not because of the IDF." Michael, who is also a fellow at the Misgav Institute in Jerusalem, pointed out that Hamas "loots, robs and steals the humanitarian aid, partially for themselves, to feed themselves and the rest is sold in very high prices to the local population in order to make money." Israel's goal of weakening Hamas's grip on the Strip – and on aid agencies – appeared to be working on Monday, with The Washington Post reporting that the terror group "is facing its worst financial and administrative crisis in its four-decade history" and is struggling to find the resource it needs to continue fighting Israel or rule Gaza. Quoting a former high-level Israeli intelligence officer, and current Israel Defense Forces officers, the report said that Hamas could no longer pay its fighters or rebuild its underground terror tunnels, where it is believed to be holding some 50 hostages, both alive and dead, who kidnapped during its Oct. 7 attack.
