Hamas holds hostage release terms as Trump pushes for deal by Jan. 20 – National

Hamas maintained its demand Tuesday that Israel completely end its attack on Gaza under any deal to free the hostages, and said U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was reckless in saying “it will be unleashed.” a hell” unless they are free before January 20. opening.

Officials from the Islamist group and Israel have been holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intense effort for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of 100 hostages held captive in Gaza.

The outgoing US administration has called for a final push to reach a deal 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 when 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 won’t be good for Hamas and, frankly, it won’t be good for anyone.”

Trump will send his incoming 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 you’ve drawn are what’s driving this negotiation,” Witkoff told reporters while standing next to Trump.

But as the clock ticks, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.

Hamas says it will release the remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end its military offensive and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end its attack until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.

“Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages,” Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar Tal said in a briefing with reporters, stating that Israel was fully committed to reaching an agreement.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a news conference in Algiers, said Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a deal.

While he said he would not give details about the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated Hamas’ conditions of “a complete end to the aggression and a complete withdrawal from the lands that the occupation invaded.”

Commenting on Trump’s threat that there would be “hell” to pay unless all the hostages were released before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the president of the United States needs to make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.” .

Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks mediated by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arab media reports said David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, who has been leading the negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office had no comment.

In a notable step toward a deal, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday that the group had approved a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. .

The list included female Israeli soldiers, as well as elderly civilians, women and minors. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had so far received no confirmation whether those on its list were still alive.

Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza, according to Hamas health officials in the enclave. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 24 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, doctors said, as the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to run generators and maintain hospitals. medical services.

One of those attacks killed four people in a home in Gaza City and six died in separate attacks across the enclave, doctors said.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli strike on a tent in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip killed four children and eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia in the north, they said. the doctors.

Additionally, an Israeli attack on a car in Khan Younis killed two people, doctors and civil emergency service officials said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those attacks.

He said 240 Palestinians his forces had detained in a raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza last month had provided “substantial intelligence.”

The military released footage of the interrogation of a suspected Hamas militant that detailed how the militants “operated from the hospital area” and transferred 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