Hamas supports hostage release terms as Trump Jan 20 – National
Hamas stood by its demand on Tuesday Israel completely stops his attack Gaza based on any agreement to release the hostages and the president-elect of the United States said Donald Trump He was quick to say that “hell will break loose” if they are not released by the January 20 inauguration.
The Islamist group and Israeli officials have been in the most intensive talks for months with Qatari and Egyptian mediators to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and free 100 hostages held captive in Gaza.
Outgoing US administration Joe Biden has called for a final push for a deal before he leaves office, and many in the region now see Trump’s inauguration as an unofficial deadline.
“If (the hostages) don’t come back before I take office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East,” Trump said at a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday.
“It won’t be good for Hamas, frankly, it won’t be good for anyone.”
Trump is sending his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to Qatar this week for further talks. Witkoff said that real progress has been made.
“The red lines that he’s putting in place — they’re driving the negotiations,” Witkoff told reporters as he stood next to Trump.
But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by sticking to conditions that have torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.
Hamas says it will release its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end its military offensive and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not stop its attacks until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed.
Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eden Bar Tal, said in a briefing to journalists that Israel is fully committed to reaching an agreement: “Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages.”
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Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a press conference in Algeria, said that Israel is to blame for destroying all efforts to reach an agreement.
Although he said that he would not give detailed information about the last round of negotiations, he reiterated the conditions of “a complete end to aggression and complete withdrawal from the occupied lands” by Hamas.
Commenting on Trump’s threat that the payment will be “hell” if all hostages are not released before the inauguration ceremony, Hamdan said: “I think the US president should make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.”
Israel has sent a team of mid-level officials to Qatar to negotiate with mediators from Qatar and Egypt. Some Arab media reported that Mossad chief David Barnea, who is leading the talks, is expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not comment.
In a notable step toward a deal, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the group had cleared an Israeli-provided list of 34 hostages who could be released in the first phase of the truce, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The list includes female Israeli soldiers, as well as elderly, female and minor civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel has so far received no confirmation that those on its list are alive.
Israel continues airstrikes on Gaza
According to Hamas health officials in the enclave, about 46,000 Palestinians died as a result of Israel’s attack on Gaza. The offensive began in October 2023 after Hamas fighters attacked Israeli territory, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
At least 24 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, doctors said, as the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory called on international donors to immediately provide fuel to power generators and provide medical services.
Doctors said one of the strikes killed four people in a house in Gaza City, and six others were killed in separate attacks in the enclave.
Four children and eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in northern Jabaliya later Tuesday, doctors said, after Israel struck a tent in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.
In addition, two people were killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Khan Yunis, medics and civil emergency officials said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
During the raid on the Kamal Advan hospital in the north of Gaza last month, it was said that 240 Palestinians who were taken into custody by their forces gave “substantial intelligence information”.
The military released footage of the interrogation of a Hamas militant detailing how the militants “operated from the hospital grounds” and moved weapons to and from there.
Hamas and the Gaza Health Ministry deny any armed presence at the hospital.
—With additional files from the Associated Press
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