Situation at a glance: Trump increases pressure on Gaza negotiators

Shortly before his inauguration, US President-elect Donald Trump used drastic words to increase the pressure on negotiators in the ongoing talks about the release of the hostages in Gaza. “All hell will break loose in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas, and it will be, frankly, good for no one” if the hostages are not back by his inauguration on January 20, he said his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. As with a similar statement at the beginning of December, Trump did not say what he specifically meant by that.

His candidate for Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, announced that he would join the ongoing round of negotiations in Qatar today on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. Witkoff expressed optimism that an agreement between Israel and Hamas could be reached in the capital Doha before January 20. “Well, I think we’re making a lot of progress, and I don’t want to give too much away because I think they’re doing a really good job in Doha,” Witkoff said in Trump’s presence. Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar since the weekend.

Witkoff said he was confident that there would be “some good things to say in the name of the president” at Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s team is not officially involved in the negotiations, but is working with the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden. Witkoff has traveled to the region several times. There have often been signs of hope in the indirect talks mediated by the USA, Egypt and Qatar, but each time they have been disappointed. Compromise is difficult because Israel and Hamas want to destroy each other.

In his remarks to journalists at his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to the New York Times, Trump suggested that his threats against Hamas would persuade the Islamist terrorist group to give in. But experts are having difficulty understanding the meaning of Trump’s threats, they said. “I have no idea, and neither does he,” the newspaper quoted Daniel C. Kurtzer, U.S. ambassador to Israel during the George W. Bush administration, as saying.

Doubts about Trump’s threats

Since the beginning of the Gaza war 15 months ago, Israel’s military has almost destroyed Hamas as an organized fighting force. It is unclear what further escalation of the attacks could cause, the newspaper wrote. “I don’t see any scenario in which US forces would be deployed; in any case, we don’t know better than the Israelis what would bring Hamas to its knees,” Kurtzer was quoted as saying. “Blame is the worst form of politics,” he said.

Meanwhile, the US news site Axios quoted a Hamas representative as saying that the Islamist organization and its supporters in Gaza were not afraid of Trump’s threats “because they are already living in hell in Gaza.” He does not believe an agreement can be reached by January 20th. Another Hamas representative also reiterated Hamas’s position to an Arabic TV station that any agreement must include an end to the war in Gaza and a complete withdrawal of Israel from Gaza.

Israel’s president speaks of a huge tragedy

Israel’s President Izchak Herzog called on negotiators in Qatar at a meeting with international crisis officials in Jerusalem to “move forward as far as possible and end this huge tragedy.” According to official information, the representatives of the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Germany and Austria came specifically for a meeting with Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, who is responsible for hostages and missing persons. Jens Jokisch, crisis officer at the Foreign Office, was there for Germany.

Members of Hamas and other extremist groups killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others in Israel on October 7, 2023. This was the trigger for the Gaza war. After more than a year, according to Israeli information, 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza – including corpses. Among the hostages are several people who, in addition to Israeli, also have German or US citizenship. Hamas also wants to use dead hostages to free Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s prisons.