Hamas is sticking to its demand on Tuesday. Israel Completely attack him Gaza Under any deal to release the hostages, and the US president-elect said Donald Trump It was too early to say that “all hell would break loose” unless he was freed after his inauguration on January 20.
The Islamist group and Israeli officials have been negotiating with Qatari and Egyptian mediators for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of 100 hostages held in Gaza.
The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a deal before Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region now see Trump's inauguration as an unofficial deadline.
“If (the hostages) are not returned by the time I get to office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday.
“It's not going to be good for Hamas, and it's not going to be good for anybody.”
Trump is sending his incoming special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Wittkoff, to Qatar this week for additional talks. “Real progress has been made,” Witkov said.
“The red lines that he's put out there — it's moving the conversation forward,” Witkoff told reporters as he stood next to Trump.
But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse each other of stalling 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 operations and withdraw all its forces from Gaza. Israel says it will not end its offensive until Hamas is eliminated and all hostages are freed.
The Director General of Israel's Foreign Ministry, Edin Bar Tal, while giving a briefing to journalists, said that Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages.
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At a news conference in Algeria, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel was responsible for undermining all efforts to reach an agreement.
While he said he would not give details on the latest round of talks, he reiterated Hamas' terms of “a complete cessation of aggression and a complete withdrawal from occupied lands”.
Commenting on Trump's threat that there would be “hell to pay” for not releasing all the hostages before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the American president should be more disciplined and make diplomatic statements.”
Israel has sent a team of mid-level officials to Qatar for talks mediated by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said Mossad chief David Barnia, 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 a list of 34 hostages presented by Israel for fighting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. Can be released in the early stages of imprisonment.
In addition to female Israeli soldiers, the list also included the elderly, women and minor civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel has yet to confirm whether those on its list are still alive.
Israel continues its airstrikes on Gaza.
According to Hamas health officials in the enclave, Israel's assault on Gaza has killed nearly 46,000 Palestinians. The offensive was launched 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 military strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, as the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory asked international donors to urgently run generators and maintain medical services. has appealed to provide fuel for
One of the attacks killed four people in a house in Gaza City, and six people were killed in separate attacks in the enclave, medics said.
Later on Tuesday, four children were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, and eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia in the north, medics said.
Additionally, two people were killed in an Israeli attack on a car in Khan Yunis, medical and civil emergency service officials said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attacks.
It said its forces detained 240 Palestinians last month during a raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza that provided “substantial intelligence”.
The military released footage of an interrogation of an alleged Hamas militant showing how the militants “operated from the hospital area” and transferred weapons from it.
Hamas and the Gaza Health Ministry have denied the presence of any militants in the hospital.
-With additional files from the Associated Press