President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his warning that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the Israeli hostages it has held for more than a year prior to his inauguration in under two weeks.
Hamas is still holding roughly 100 of the 250 hostages that the U.S.-designated terrorist group kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, though it is unknown how many of them are still alive. Seven Americans are still being held by Hamas.
“If those hostages aren’t back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas,” Trump said during a Tuesday press conference at Mar-a-Lago. “And it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.”
The incoming president has made this threat multiple times in recent weeks, though it is unclear whether it will actually lead to an agreement and what specifically his administration would do if a deal does not come to fruition by his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, said at the same press conference that there has been “some really great progress” and that he is heading back to Doha, Qatar, later this week to continue the negotiations.
The Biden administration has sought to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas to stop the war, which would allow for desperately needed humanitarian aid to get into Gaza and be distributed and include the release of hostages. The two sides have not been able to come to an agreement since the collapse of the weeklong ceasefire that took place at the end of November 2023.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the government wants to get a deal finalized before the end of the Biden administration.
“We’ve seen in the last couple of weeks a reintensified engagement, including by Hamas, but we have yet to see agreement on the final points,” Blinken said. “So what I can tell you is this: We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time that we have remaining, and we will work every minute of every day of those two weeks to try to get that to happen.”