Hamas maintained its demand Tuesday that Israel completely end its assault on Gaza under any agreement to release hostages, and declared that the US president-elect Donald Trump It was rash to say that “all hell will break loose” unless they are released before his inauguration on January 20.
Officials from the Islamist group and Israel held negotiations with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intensive efforts in months to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of the 100 hostages remaining captive in Gaza.
The outgoing US administration has called for a final effort to reach a deal before Joe Biden leaves office, and many people in the region now view Trump’s inauguration as an unofficial deadline.
“If (the hostages) are not back by the time I take office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East,” Trump said Tuesday during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“It won’t be good for Hamas, and frankly, it won’t be good for anyone. »
Trump is sending his new Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Qatar this week for additional talks. Witkoff said real progress has been made.
“The red lines that he drew are the driving force behind this negotiation,” Witkoff told reporters as he stood next to Trump.
But with time running out, both sides are accusing each other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that have torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end its military offensive and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end its attacks until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are released.
“Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages,” Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal told a news briefing, asserting that Israel was fully committed to reaching an agreement. .
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Hamas official Osama Hamdan, holding a news conference in Algiers, said Israel was responsible for undermining all efforts to reach an agreement.
While saying he would not elaborate on the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated Hamas’ conditions: “a complete end to aggression and a complete withdrawal from the lands invaded by the occupation.”
Commenting on Trump’s threat that there would be “hell” to pay if all the hostages were not released before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the American president needs to make more disciplined and more diplomatic statements . »
Israel sent a team of mid-level officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. According to some Arab media, David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who led the negotiations, is expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office had no comment.
In a notable step toward a deal, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be released in the initial phase of a truce, alongside Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The list included female Israeli soldiers, as well as elderly, female and minor civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had so far received no confirmation whether the people on its list were still alive.
Israel continues airstrikes on Gaza
Nearly 46,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza, according to Hamas health officials in the enclave. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts.
Israeli military strikes killed at least 24 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, doctors said, as the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to run generators. and maintain medical services.
One of the strikes killed four people in a house in Gaza City and six others were killed in separate strikes across the enclave, medics said.
Later on Tuesday, an Israeli strike on a tent in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip killed four children and eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia in the north, doctors said.
Additionally, an Israeli strike on a car in Khan Younis killed two people, doctors and civil emergency services officials said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
He said the 240 Palestinians his forces arrested during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month had provided “substantial intelligence.”
The military released footage of the interrogation of an alleged Hamas militant who detailed how the militants “operated from the hospital area” and transferred weapons there.
Hamas and the Gaza Health Ministry deny any armed presence at the hospital.
—With additional files from the Associated Press
