WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he is working to secure the release of the hostages in Gaza.
“We are trying to help very strongly in getting the hostages back,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Trump transition team has been working together with the outgoing Biden administration in the past weeks to try to secure a hostage release and ceasefire deal before the president-elect enters office. The initiative has made progress in recent days, though major obstacles remain, three US, Israeli, and Arab officials have told The Times of Israel.
If the hostages are not home by his January 20, 2025, inauguration day, “all hell is going to break out,” Trump added, reiterating a threat he issued earlier this month.
Trump confirmed that he held a “recap call” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend, but did not go into specifics. “We had a very good talk, and we discussed what is going to happen, and I’ll be very available on January 20, and we’ll see,” he said.
In the meantime, Trump’s Mideast envoys Steve Witkoff and Massad Boulos were in the region last week, meeting with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, respectively, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Times of Israel.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was also in Israel, Egypt, and Qatar over the weekend, and said he believed a ceasefire deal would be possible by the end of the month.
White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk traveled with Sullivan and remained in the region on Monday, in order to take talks forward.
Relatedly, a working-level Israeli delegation arrived in Doha on Monday to advance hostage talks, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel. The Israeli delegation includes representatives from the IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad.
Also on Monday, Netanyahu met with Trump’s newly appointed hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, the premier’s office said, while declining to share additional details about the sit-down.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said hostage talks have been “productive” in recent days and that the mediators were working on closing the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas.
However, he stressed during a press briefing that the sides have been this close to a deal before, only for the talks to blow up.
There are a very small number of differences between Israel and Hamas, and the gaps are bridgeable, Miller noted.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during meetings last week that they should use whatever influence they have over Hamas to secure a deal, Miller said, adding that Fidan later reported back to the secretary that Ankara had done just that. The State Department spokesperson added that Qatar and Egypt are also leaning on the terror group to agree to a deal.
Arab mediators have told The Times of Israel that the main obstacle remains the question of whether the ceasefire being negotiated will be permanent or temporary, with Israel insisting that it be allowed to return to fighting after the first phase of the deal, while Hamas wants the IDF to permanently withdraw.
Miller said the US is pushing as hard as it can to secure a deal, but that it will be incumbent on Hamas and Israel to bring the agreement across the finish line.
Trump was also asked during his Monday press conference if he would authorize a preemptive strike against Iran. “Why would I say that? Can you imagine if I said yes or no?” he replied.
As for whether he would back an Israeli strike on Iran, Trump said, “You don’t talk about that before something may or may not happen. It’s not something I would ever answer.”
“The Middle East is going to be in a good place. The Russia-Ukraine situation is going to be much more difficult,” he said, reiterating a point he made during an interview with Time magazine last week.
In that interview, Trump said that Netanyahu knows he wants the Gaza war to end, hinted a war with Iran could be in the cards and refrained from endorsing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even though his “deal of the century” proposed a version of Palestinian statehood in 2020.
Asked about the chances for war with Iran, Trump paused before replying, “Anything can happen,” in a shift from his messaging during the campaign, when he pledged that he wouldn’t start any new wars.
Asked if Netanyahu has given him assurances about ending the Gaza war, Trump declined to respond directly, saying, “I don’t want people from either side killed… whether it’s the Palestinians and the Israelis and all of the different entities that we have in the Middle East.”