Washington, 3 December 2024 (dpa/MIA) - US President-elect Donald Trump has called for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and threatened the Palestinian militant group Hamas with undefined consequences if it fails to comply.

If the hostages are not released before he takes office on January 20, there would be "All Hell to pay" for those responsible for atrocities in the Middle East, Trump wrote in capital letters on the Truth Social platform on Monday.

"Those responsible will be hit harder than anyone in the long and storied history of the United States of America." Again in capital letters, Trump added: "Release the hostages now!".

Members of Hamas and other extremist groups killed around 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 others in Israel on October 7, 2023. After more than a year of war, many of the approximately 100 hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip are thought to have died.

On Monday, the Israeli military had declared another hostage dead. The Israeli soldier, who was born in New York and was 21 years old at the time of his abduction, was killed during the attack on October 7, and his body held in the Gaza Strip ever since. According to the US government, he also had US citizenship.