Hamas has deliberately used hostages as leverage since its attack on Israel almost two years ago, and that strategy has allowed the conflict to continue, Walid Phares, a foreign policy adviser to candidate Donald Trump in 2016, said on Newsmax on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, that’s the conclusion of most analysts at this point,” Phares told Newsmax’s “Sunday Report.”

“Hamas, from week one, knew what they were doing,” he said. “They captured hundreds of individuals, Israeli citizens and foreigners as well, precisely to use them to stretch as much as they could in time, and they did. We are in 2025. We are in the summer of 2025, and still there are hostages there.”

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