Rubio Praises Trump's Efforts for the Release of Hostages Held by Hamas

Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, praised Donald Trump's efforts for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza on Saturday, March 4. These remarks came after the terrorist group Hamas released six more hostages on Saturday. Rubio called for the immediate release of all remaining hostages on the social media platform 'X', stating: 'Hamas released six more hostages in Gaza today. Thanks to Trump's efforts, over 30 hostages have been freed in the first phase of the ceasefire. Almost twice that number are still in captivity—everyone must be freed right now!' Additionally, today marks the final stage of the release of living hostages as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, a terrorist group supported by the Islamic Republic, which has been in effect since last month. According to this agreement, Israel was supposed to release 620 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for these hostages, but has delayed the implementation of this exchange due to 'further security checks.' The terrorist group Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took over 200 hostages during the terrorist attack on October 7 of last year. This action by Hamas was met with a response from Israel, which attacked Gaza, the area controlled by this terrorist group. According to Palestinian health officials in the Hamas-controlled area of Gaza, more than 48,000 people have been killed as a result of Israeli attacks so far. This figure does not differentiate between military and civilian casualties. In this context, Israel has repeatedly accused the terrorist group Hamas of using civilians as human shields.