The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Tuesday stuck to its demand that Israel fully end its offensive on Gaza under any hostage release agreement and said US President-elect Donald Trump was too quick to say “all hell will break loose” unless they are released by January 20. . opening.
Officials from the Islamic Movement and Israel are holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intense effort in months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of 100 hostages still being held in Gaza.
The outgoing US administration called for a final push to reach an agreement before Joe Biden leaves office, and many 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 at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“It wouldn’t be good for Hamas, and it wouldn’t be good, frankly, for anyone.”
Trump is sending his next special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to Qatar this week for additional talks. Witkoff said real progress has been made.
“The red lines that he put out there are what are driving these negotiations,” Witkoff told reporters while standing next to Trump.
But as time passes, both sides accuse the other of obstructing an agreement by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.
Hamas says it will not release the rest of the hostages unless Israel agrees to end its military offensive and withdraw all its forces from Gaza. Israel says it will not end its offensive until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are released.
“Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages,” Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Eden Bar Tal said in a press conference, adding that Israel is fully committed to reaching an agreement.
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Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a press conference in Algeria, said that Israel is responsible for undermining all efforts made to reach an agreement.
While he said he would not provide details about the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated Hamas’ conditions of “a complete cessation of aggression and complete withdrawal from the territories invaded by the occupation.”
Commenting on Trump’s threat that there would be “hell” they would pay if all the hostages were not released before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the American president should make more restrained and diplomatic statements.”
Israel sent a team of mid-level officials to Qatar to hold talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt. Some Arab media reports said they were expected to be joined by David Barnea, head of the Mossad, who is leading the negotiations. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not comment.
In a notable step toward reaching an agreement, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the movement had removed a list provided by Israel with the names of 34 hostages who could be released in the first phase of the truce, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The list included Israeli female soldiers, in addition to elderly civilians, women and minors. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel has not yet received any confirmation of whether the people on its list are still alive.
Israel continues its air strikes on Gaza
Nearly 46,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza, according to Hamas health officials in the Strip. The attack was launched after Hamas militants stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli statistics.
Israeli military strikes killed at least 24 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, while the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to run generators and maintain medical services.
Medics said that one of those raids resulted in the killing of four people in a house in Gaza City, and six were killed in separate raids throughout the Strip.
Later on Tuesday, medics said that an Israeli raid on a tent in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip killed four children, and eight Palestinians were martyred in an Israeli air strike on a house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
In addition, paramedics and Civil Emergency Service officials said that an Israeli raid on a car in Khan Yunis resulted in the deaths of two people.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on these strikes.
She said that 240 Palestinians arrested by her forces in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month provided “significant intelligence information.”
The army released footage of the interrogation of an alleged Hamas activist who detailed how the gunmen “operated from the hospital area” and transferred weapons to and from it.
Hamas and the Ministry of Health in Gaza deny any armed presence in the hospital.
-With additional files from The Associated Press
