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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Trump says some hostages may have ‘recently died’ in Gaza, as | |
Israel calls on Palestinians to evacuate enclave’s largest city | |
By Ibrahim Dahman, Kareem El Damanhoury, Lucas Lilieholm, Nadeen | |
Ebrahim, CNN | |
Updated: | |
8:36 AM EDT, Sat September 6, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
US President Donald Trump said that some of the 20 hostages who are | |
presumed to be alive in Gaza may have “recently died,” as Israel | |
calls on Palestinians living in Gaza City to evacuate ahead of on the | |
enclave’s largest city. | |
“It’s 20 people but I think of the 20 there could be some that have | |
recently died is what I’m hearing. I hope that’s wrong,” Trump | |
told reporters at the Oval Office on Friday. | |
“We know that at least 30 people are dead, and we are negotiating to | |
get them out,” he added. | |
The Israeli government says 47 hostages abducted by Hamas and its | |
allies on October 7, 2023 are still in Gaza, including 27 who are | |
believed to be dead. | |
Trump did not reveal the source of the information regarding the | |
possible recent deaths. | |
Trump said the administration was to secure the release of the | |
remaining Israeli hostages and warned of a “tough situation” ahead. | |
“When you get down to the final 10 or 20, you’re not gonna get them | |
out unless you’re gonna do a lot and doing a lot means | |
capitulation,” he said. | |
The Israeli military has not yet responded to CNN’s request for | |
comment on Trump’s remarks. | |
Trump made similar comments in August saying “probably” fewer than | |
20 of the remaining hostages were still alive, prompting demands from | |
the families of remaining hostages for answers from Israel’s | |
government. Last April, ’s wife Sara was overheard on a microphone | |
saying that fewer hostages were alive than the government’s official | |
numbers suggested, sparking outrage among hostage families who demanded | |
the government reveal information about the number of those still | |
alive. | |
In a statement Saturday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum did | |
not directly address Trump’s latest remarks on the hostages but | |
thanked him for “making every effort to fulfill his promise to bring | |
them home.” | |
Trump’s comments came on the same day of two hostages in which they | |
were shown above the ground and being driven around Gaza City. One of | |
them said that he and eight other hostages in Gaza City would die if | |
Israel proceeded with its plan to take over the city. | |
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum have criticized Israel’s on | |
the city, saying it would increase the risk to hostages since the | |
Israeli military lacks precise information about their location. | |
Calls to evacuate | |
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has expanded its military operations in | |
recent weeks to take over and occupy Gaza City, which it claims would | |
defeat Hamas. The military says it now controls 40% of the enclave’s | |
largest city. | |
The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to move from Gaza City | |
to the south, in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis. | |
“We are declaring the Mawasi area a humanitarian zone, where work | |
will be carried out to provide better humanitarian service,” the | |
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on X | |
on Saturday morning. | |
“Seize the opportunity to move to the humanitarian zone early and | |
join the thousands who have already moved there,” he added. | |
Photos and videos on social media show leaflets dropped on Gaza City | |
and central Gaza carrying the same message. | |
A map in Adraee’s statement, purporting to show humanitarian | |
infrastructure set up in the south of the strip, shows no medical or | |
food distribution sites north of the Netzarim Corridor which bisects | |
the territory, leaving northern Gaza including all of Gaza City without | |
humanitarian support. | |
In response, Hamas’ local front issued multiple statements on | |
Telegram urging Palestinians in Gaza City not to flee southward, | |
describing it as “the path to death.” | |
“Every time people believed the ‘safe zones’ lie, it ended with | |
bloody massacres,” it said on Friday. | |
As of Wednesday, only 70,000 Palestinians had evacuated Gaza City out | |
of approximately one million people, a senior Israeli official said, | |
making up less than 10% of the total population. | |
Gaza City residents told CNN they would rather die in their homes than | |
to be displaced again. | |
“I am staying in my home and will not be displaced again, until my | |
last breath, even if it means death, because we are exhausted from | |
displacement,” Abu Yasser Al-Khour, a 51-year-old father of six, told | |
CNN. | |
The International Red Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has pushed back | |
against the mass evacuation of Gaza, calling it “unfeasible and | |
incomprehensible.” | |
“Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that | |
no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction | |
of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, | |
shelter and medical care,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said. | |
Where do ceasefire negotiations stand? | |
Last month, Hamas for a 60-day temporary ceasefire, during which 10 of | |
the living hostages would be returned in exchange for a mass release of | |
Palestinian prisoners. The offer is based on a similar proposal | |
presented by US special envoy Steve Witkoff in July, originally crafted | |
in coordination with Israel. | |
Israel is yet to provide a response to the offer, demanding, among | |
other things, that Hamas disarm completely. Hamas has not committed to | |
disarm, but says that Netanyahu wants to have “endless war” by not | |
responding to the deal. | |
In his remarks Friday, Trump warned that failure to secure a hostage | |
deal could lead to a “tough situation.” | |
“It’s going to be nasty – that’s my opinion, Israel’s choice, | |
but that’s my opinion,” Trump said. “They gotta let them out.” | |
Pressed on what demands Hamas still has, Trump told reporters the | |
organization is “asking for some things that are fine,” but added, | |
“You have to remember October 7.” | |
“You know, people forget October 7 – it’s not an easy thing to | |
forget, right?” he said. “But people forget, or they maybe | |
purposely forget October 7. So, you know, you have to put that into the | |
equation very strongly.” | |
And he said he’d spoken to families of the hostages still being held | |
in Gaza. | |
“They just want them back very badly, and everything that goes with | |
it – so it’s very sad,” he said. | |
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