The US president-elect has renewed his earlier threat that there will be “hell to pay” if the captives held by Hamas in Gaza are not released by the time he returns to the White House on January 20.
“If they're (hostages) not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East,” Donald Trump told reporters. “And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say any more, but that’s what it is.”
During a wide-ranging news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump did not elaborate about what actions he might take if the hostages were not released by the time he enters office.
“They should have never taken them,” Trump told reporters. “There should have never been the attack of Oct 7. People forget that. But there was, and many people were killed.”
The president-elect then invited Steve Witkoff, whom he intends to appoint as his Middle East envoy, to speak to reporters.
“Well, I think we're making a lot of progress, and I don't want to say too much because I think they're doing a really good job back in Doha,” said Witkoff, who had just arrived from Doha, Qatar, where delegations from Israel and Hamas have been negotiating.
“I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” the envoy said.
He noted that Trump’s “stature” and “the red lines he’s put out there that’s driving this negotiation.”
Witkoff added that he was “leaving tomorrow” to go back to Doha. “So hopefully it'll all work out and we'll save some lives,” he said.
The envoy said Trump has given him much authority to speak for him decisively and firmly. “I think they (Hamas leaders) heard him loud and clear. [This] better get done by the inaugural,” he said.
At the negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free. In return, Hamas says it would free its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from the Gaza Strip, making it harder to ink a deal before the inauguration on January 20.
A senior leader of Hamas, Osama Hamdan, said, “The experience of negotiating with Israel has proven that the only solution to achieve the rights of our people is to engage with the enemy and force it to retreat.”
At a press conference in Algeria on Tuesday, Hamdan said Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a deal.
“Our clear position in the negotiations is a ceasefire, the withdrawal of the occupation, the exchange of prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza without Israeli conditions,” he said.
Commenting on Trump's threat that there would be “hell to pay” unless all hostages were freed before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the US president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.”
Hamdan’s comments came while Israel said it will not end the war until Hamas is eliminated and all the hostages are released.
Israeli Minister of Science and Technology, Gila Gamliel, said on Tuesday that Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip before receiving all the hostages.
For months, Egypt and Qatar have been mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal.
The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a Gaza ceasefire before President Joe Biden leaves office.
Therefore, Trump’s inauguration on January 20 is now viewed in the region as an unofficial deadline for a truce deal.
