President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated his call for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, amid reports of an impasse in the efforts to broker a deal toward that end.
An interlocutor asked Trump about the captives on Tuesday night, at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida, noting that Trump had warned “there will be hell to pay” unless they are freed by the time he takes office on Jan. 20.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump replied. “They better let the hostages come back soon.”
Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are at a stalemate, The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday quoted Arab mediators as saying, making a deal unlikely during President Joe Biden’s term in office.
The negotiations center on the prospect of a 60-day ceasefire and the release of up to 30 hostages, according to what mediators told the Journal. Israel would set free Palestinian prisoners (i.e. terrorists) and allow more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza in exchange, they said.
But Hamas wants bodies of dead hostages to be included in the 30 freed Israelis, to which Israel objected. And Israel has refused to release some of the terrorists sought by Hamas, which insists the ceasefire include a framework for a long-term truce.
The mediators said that they expected both sides to return to the negotiating table after the new administration takes over in Washington.
Hamas abducted 250 people from the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023, as part of its invasion, in which it also murdered some 1,200 people. Of the hostages, 96 remain in Gaza (along with four others taken previously), but dozens are believed to have died.
Israel launched an ongoing military campaign to dismantle Hamas and retrieve the hostages. In November 2023, about 100 hostages returned in exchange for a weeklong ceasefire and the release of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists.
Trump, who has met with relatives of the captives, appointed Adam Boehler as his special envoy for hostage affairs. Boehler met last month in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We are trying to help very strongly in getting the hostages back,” Trump said last month. Biden has also vowed to free the hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a recent closed meeting that fighting in Gaza would resume following any ceasefire agreement with Hamas, according to a Channel 12 report on Monday.
“If there is a deal—and I hope there will be—Israel will return to fighting afterward. There’s no reason to obscure or conceal this because resuming fighting is intended to complete the war’s objectives. This doesn’t obstruct a deal; it encourages one,” the news outlet quoted the premier as saying.
Jerusalem’s three war goals are to eradicate Hamas as a military and political body, bring all of the captives home and prevent Gaza from re-emerging as a security threat to Israel in the future.
