White House has not received Hamas letter on Gaza hostage deal, Rubio says

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the White House has yet to receive a reported Hamas letter offering a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for releasing half the remaining Gaza hostages, while noting that President Donald Trump would reject anything short of a full release of hostages.

“We haven’t seen the letter. We don’t have that letter, and even if we did, it wouldn’t matter. The president has already made clear he’s not interested in 60 days, 10 people. He wants all the hostages out, all 48, including the 20 who are alive, the 28 who are deceased,” Rubio said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.”

“Why are we even talking about hostages? Why do we still have to talk about hostages at this point? There shouldn’t be any. They should all be released immediately. Period. That’s the president’s position.”

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Rubio reiterated that President Trump would have rejected Hamas’ reported offer even if it had already reached his desk, suggesting the message was perhaps given to the media rather than the administration.

Per prior reporting, a senior Trump official and a second source directly involved in negotiations told Fox News Hamas had drafted the letter to be delivered to Trump sometime this week.

This comes after the president said he wanted the remaining hostages to be freed “now – right now,” during his U.K. visit last week.

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Trump also issued what he called his “last warning” to Hamas in a Truth Social post earlier this month, writing on Sept. 7, “Everyone wants the Hostages HOME. Everyone wants this War to end! The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well. I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”

Rubio elaborated on what lies ahead for Hamas if the group fails to surrender, warning that Israeli forces are “right at the doorstep of Gaza City,” where Hamas leaders are currently concentrated, and have “begun an operation to go in.”

“It may take a while, but they’re [Hamas officials are] not going to survive the Israeli push,” he warned. 

“What we would hope to see is that it doesn’t have to happen, because Hamas surrenders, they lay down their arms, they release all the hostages. And then the important work of rebuilding Gaza and providing a place where Palestinians can live prosperously and peacefully, that work can begin. But that work cannot begin until the hostages are released and Hamas no longer exists.

“The sooner that happens, the sooner peace will begin.”

Fox News’ Trey Yingst and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.