Trump Says He’s Still Working on Getting Back Bodies of All Israeli Hostages: It’s ‘Vital’ to the Parents

Sarah RumpfNov 10th, 2025, 5:19 pm
 

President Donald Trump commented about the Israeli hostages held by Hamas during questions from reporters Monday in the Oval Office.

The remaining 20 living Israeli hostages were released by Hamas last month, handed over to the Red Cross after a 737-day ordeal in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 terror attacks. The deal also included Israel releasing 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and Hamas returning the remains of 68 deceased hostages, but all of those bodies have not yet been returned.

Trump brought up the topic of the hostages unprompted in response to a reporter’s question asking if we should “expect an announcement on a pact between Syria and Israel.”

A transcript of Trump’s reply:

Yeah, you can expect some announcements on Syria. We want to see Syria become a country that’s very successful, and I think this leader can do it, I really do. I think this leader can do it.

And people said he’s had a rough past. We’ve all had rough pasts. But he has had a rough past and I think, frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance.

He gets along very well with Turkey, with President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, who is a great leader. Erdoğan’s a great leader, and very much in favor of what’s happening in Syria.

We have to make Syria work. Syria’s a big part of the Middle East. And I will tell you I think it is working really well. We’re working well with Israel on, you know, getting along with Syria, getting along with everybody. And that’s working, amazingly.

As you know, Hamas has given us back numerous bodies. It sounds pretty gruesome, but it’s something the parents want — more than if their son had been living, hard to believe. I’ve seen all of the parents, so many of the parents — and getting back the body of their son, their dead son, is as vital to them, as important to them as if the boy was — generally, the boy — the boy was alive, and as you know in the last four or five days, we’ve gotten a lot of the additional bodies that they said they were going — they worked very hard to do that.

So, we have peace in the Middle East. It’s a great thing. And nobody’s ever seen anything quite like it.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.