‘Drip, drip, drip’: Marco Rubio warns that Hamas needs to speed up hostage release or else

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Hamas isn’t honoring the terms of the fragile ceasefire with Israel and could pay a terrible price, particularly given the slow pace of the release of hostages taken in 2023.

“As far as the ceasefire is concerned, look, Hamas is breaking the deal. The President is tired of the drip, drip, drip; he wants people out,” Rubio told Sean Hannity.

Per the Times of Israel, President Donald Trump wants all hostages released by Saturday. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants “our hostages” released, seemingly referring to Israeli nationals specifically.

Rubio also affirmed the President’s position to Chris Cuomo.

“There’s some Americans there as well. He wants to see them released, and he’s made very clear that if that’s not the case on Saturday, then then all bets are off. And it’s not going to be good for Hamas,” Rubio said on NewsNation.

“But let’s hope that that resolves itself. I don’t think anyone wants to see a resumption of hostilities. But by the same token, we can’t have Hamas deciding what parts of the deal they’re going to live up to and what parts they’re not.”

Rubio notes that the hostages released thus far have not been treated humanely,

“You saw the condition of the hostages that were released just a week ago, and they were on the verge of death. I mean, they looked terrible. They were really clearly in bad shape. And the President just got fed up with it,” Rubio told Fox News viewers.

“If these guys don’t go through with their deal on Saturday, then I think we’re back to where we were a few months ago where Hamas is going to be eliminated and the Israelis are going to go in and take care of that problem. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point, but he’s serious about it. I mean, he’s tired of waiting for one people, two people, three people at a time. It’s time for all of them to come home.”