US Envoy Defends Direct Hamas Talks as Israel Pressures Gaza; Terrorist Massacres Unfold in Syria

JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel is ramping up pressure on Hamas to retrieve the remaining Gaza hostages as President Trump tries to cajole Iran into a non-nuclear deal. Meanwhile, the new Syrian leader is accused of being responsible for the massacres of more than 1,000 people.

Israel cut off the electricity feed to Gaza on Sunday. The power cut-off is an attempt to force Hamas to release the 59 hostages it still holds captive. Hamas has labeled this move "cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics."

Israel may cut off water next. The government is also drawing up new war plans in the event Hamas doesn't free the hostages, lay down its arms, and give up governing Gaza.

Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen declared, "We will employ all the tools available to us so that all the hostages will return, and we will ensure that Hamas won’t be in Gaza on the ‘day after’."

The U.S. has been dealing directly with the terror group to free the last living American hostage. Israeli leaders were reportedly upset about those direct talks.

However, U.S. negotiator Adam Boehler believes he's allayed concerns in a talk with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. "I think I was able to put him at ease that I wasn't going to go off the rails, that it would be parameters that we would work on together," said Boehler.

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Iran, meanwhile, is refusing to talk with Washington about slowing Iran's push to get nuclear weapons.

Aiming at the Trump administration, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated, "Some bullying governments insist on negotiations. Their negotiation is not aimed at resolving issues. They negotiate to dictate their will."

The president wrote to Khameini about the U.S. wish to strike a deal rather than attack Iran militarily.

"I've written them a letter saying I hope you're going to negotiate," Trump explained. "Because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing for them... You can't let them have a nuclear weapon."

In Syria, the new Islamist government claims its brutal crackdown on the minority Alawite community is just an attempt to beat down a rising rebellion by supporters of the deposed Assad regime.

They contend those rebels attacked soldiers of the new regime several times last week and the new government in Damascus called for an inquiry.

Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa announced, "We will not tolerate the remnants of Assad who have committed crimes against our army forces and state institutions, attacked hospitals, killed innocent civilians, and spread chaos in safe areas. These individuals have only one option: to surrender themselves to the law immediately.”

Others, however, say the Sunni forces of al-Sharaa, also known as Julani, massacred the Alawites.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that more than 1,000 people, mostly Alawite civilians, had been killed

Charmaine Hedding, founder of the Shai Fund, has been helping refugees and persecuted Christians in the Middle East for years and has been in touch with people on the ground in Syria. She says the number of dead from Sunni attacks is higher than media reports indicate.

"This is a Sunni revenge of Julani, the current self-made president of Syria, and his groups of jihadist terrorists, basically, that make up his government that has been on an absolute rampage and a killing spree across the coastal plains of that Syria."

Hedding added, "We're hearing reports of 2,000 to 3,000, and it's increasing every couple of hours. And we're seeing images and speaking to people on the ground that are just saying the bodies are piled up in the streets."

Both Israel and the U.S. signaled alarm over the killings in Syria.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned what he called "radical Islamic terrorists" who murdered people in recent days, saying the U.S. "stands with ethnic minorities, including Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities."

Israel has also stepped in to help the Druze community in northwest Syria.