The American president-elect, who must be officially inaugurated on January 20, said he wanted to “recover these hostages for Israel and for us.”
A clear warning. During a press conference organized Tuesday, January 7 from his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Donald Trump indicated that “hell will break out in the Middle East” if the hostages held by Hamas since attacks of October 7, 2023 are not released by his inauguration scheduled for January 20.
“And it will not be good for Hamas and it will frankly not be good for anyone,” he added, in comments recorded by several American media including CNN and CNBC.
The future 47th President of the United States then clarified his remarks: “We want to recover these hostages for Israel and for us. (…) And I repeat: if this agreement is not concluded with the people who represent our nation, by the time I come to power, all hell will break loose,” he said again, without specifying what actions he had in mind.
Negotiations in progress
While around a hundred hostages are still being held by the Islamist organization, Hamas declared on Sunday that it was ready to release 34 Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza during the “first phase” of an agreement with Israel.
Also on Sunday, a Hamas official also indicated that the Islamist group needed “about a week of calm” to communicate with the various kidnappers of the hostages and “identify the dead or the alive.”
The Hebrew State, for its part, emphasized that it has still not received a list from the Palestinian movement. “They know precisely who is alive and who is dead,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said. “They know exactly where the hostages are. Gaza is not very big.”
The indirect negotiations which resumed this weekend in Qatar between Israel and Hamas seem for the moment to focus on the release of hostages, one of the conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
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