President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that his administration was negotiating with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, to free the remaining hostages, and he doubled down on his earlier ultimatum that there would be “hell to pay” in Gaza if they were not released immediately.

“You’re going to find out,” Trump said from the Oval Office when asked by a reporter what he meant.

Trump highlighted his Wednesday meeting with freed Israeli hostages.

“I had the honor of spending a lot of time yesterday with quite a few of the people that we got out, and I can't believe how badly treated they were,” he said.

Earlier Thursday, Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters at the White House there could be “some action taken” by the administration that could be done “jointly with the Israelis.”

“Hamas has an opportunity to act reasonably, to do what's right, and then to walk out,” Witkoff said, referring to U.S. and Israeli demands that Hamas not have any military or political role in postwar Gaza.

Neither Trump nor the White House responded to queries on whether the options being considered would include military action. In the past, officials have said they will not send American troops to Gaza.

Trump’s decision to begin direct talks with Hamas to release hostages, led by special envoy for hostages Adam Boehler, marks a departure from Washington’s long-standing policy to not negotiate with terrorists.

“We are helping Israel in those discussions, because we're talking about Israeli hostages. And we're not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We're not giving cash,” Trump said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel “has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas.”

Hamas said the best path to free the hostages was through ceasefire negotiations. It added that threats from Trump were encouraging Israel to walk away from the multiphase Gaza ceasefire deal reached on Jan. 19, a day before Trump took office.

“The language of threats does not intimidate us; it only complicates matters further,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement posted on a Telegram channel affiliated with the group.

Wednesday on Truth Social, Trump posted, “Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you. ... I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

His administration sent $4 billion in weapons to Israel this week, the second time in a month it bypassed congressional approval for sending arms to the country.

The U.S.-Hamas talks appear to be a new diplomatic track, separate from ongoing negotiations between Hamas and Israel, with mediation by Qatar and the U.S., to secure phase two of the Gaza ceasefire.

Hamas accused the U.S. and Israel of trying to back out of negotiations as phase one ended last weekend.

“Most people are expecting the ceasefire will collapse because they are expecting that Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to start pounding Gaza again,” said Mirette Mabrouk, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

“And as soon as that happens, there will be no more hostage releases,” she told VOA.

Arab counterproposal

In addition to the two negotiation tracks, Arab nations on Tuesday endorsed a counterproposal to Trump’s call to expel Palestinians and turn Gaza into a beach destination. Under the Arab plan, Palestinians will remain there, and Hamas will be excluded from governance.

Israel has rejected the plan, but Washington sees it as a “good-faith first step,” Witkoff said in response to VOA’s question during a gathering of reporters at the White House on Thursday.

“We're evaluating everything there. So, it's a little bit early to comment,” he said.

Israel has also blocked all aid into Gaza since Sunday, repeating long-standing charges that it is being diverted to Hamas, which international agencies deny. There’s now a fuel shortage in the territory, further jeopardizing basic services such as trash removal.

The war in Gaza began with the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and resulted in about 250 people being taken hostage. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 48,400 Palestinians, about half being women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.