A deal on the Israel–Hamas war appeared to be getting closer, with mediating nations pressing the warring parties to make concessions.
Qatar has handed over drafts of a possible cease-fire agreement to both Hamas and Israel, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Jan. 14, adding that this is the closest point to a deal over the past months.
Qatar and the two other mediating nations, Egypt and the United States, are pressing to make progress in the Biden administration’s closing days. Mideast envoys representing both Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have been present in Qatar’s capital, Doha, along with the heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies.
Both sides face external pressures for a cease-fire deal.
Trump said on Jan. 7, “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the hostages by Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Hamas’s leadership has been decimated by Israel, particularly over the last six months.
Israel, meanwhile, faces pressure from its citizens, particularly families of the hostages. Dozens of them squeezed into an Israeli parliament meeting room on Jan. 13 to harangue Treasury Minister Bezalel Smotrich over his opposition to a deal.
Smotrich, a hardline member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, has opposed a deal he described as a “surrender” to Hamas.
“The emerging deal is a catastrophe for the national security of the State of Israel,” Smotrich wrote in Hebrew on the social media platform X.
“We will not be part of a surrender deal that would include releasing terrorist hostages, stopping the war and dissolving its achievements that were bought with much blood, and abandoning many hostages.
“This is the time to continue with all our might, to occupy and cleanse the entire Strip, to finally take control of humanitarian aid from Hamas, and to open the gates of hell on Gaza until Hamas surrenders completely and all the hostages are returned,” he said.
Smotrich’s frequent ally, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, said on Jan. 13 that he’d repeatedly foiled a hostage cease-fire deal over the past year and called on Smotrich to join him in thwarting an emerging agreement now.
Ben Gvir noted, though, that his hardline faction no longer has the same power to bring down Netanyahu’s coalition by threatening a pullout. Netanyahu added Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party to expand his coalition last fall.
Vice President-elect JD Vance recently elaborated on what Trump’s threats mean.
“It means enabling the Israelis to knock out the final couple of battalions of Hamas and their leadership. It means very aggressive sanctions and financial penalties on those who are supporting terrorist organizations in the Middle East. It means actually doing the job of American leadership,” Vance said on Jan. 12 on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We’re hopeful there’s going to be a deal struck toward the very end of Biden’s administration—maybe the last day or two,” Vance said. “But regardless of when that deal is struck, it will be because people are terrified that there are going to be consequences for Hamas.”
Jason Meister, a Trump advisory board member, has worked closely with the family of hostage Edan Alexander and the incoming Trump administration transition team. He told The Epoch Times that Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has worked tirelessly to secure the hostages’ release.
“The Trump team has been excellent. They are working around the clock, from Doha to Israel,” Meister said.
“I understand these negotiations are complicated and nuanced. The hostage deal should reflect the America First agenda—Trump’s agenda,” said Meister, who is Jewish and lives in Tenafly, New Jersey, where the Alexander family lives.
“We need to immediately prioritize American citizens,” he said, particularly the three American hostages who are still confirmed to be alive: Alexander, 21; Keith Siegel, 65, and Sagui Deckel-Chen, 36.
The war began when Hamas attacked Israel’s border communities and military bases on Oct. 7, 2023. Terrorists killed over 1,200 people, wounded thousands, and took about 250 hostages. Of those, about a hundred are still believed held, either living or dead.
In the ensuing war, about 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities who do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters. Israel said at least half of those were Hamas fighters, many more were their own families they were using as human shields. Israel also accused Gaza of inflating the death tolls with the names of some who died of natural causes.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times