With less than two weeks before President Joe Biden leaves office, his aides are again expressing hope that Israel and Hamas can come close to an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by the terrorist group .
The optimism comes as the Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s team work together to reach a deal before Trump is inaugurated on January 20. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is flying this week to Doha, Qatar, where White House Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Brett McGurk has been taking part in this latest round of talks since last weekend.
Trump, who said Tuesday he “does not want to hurt the negotiations,” also repeated his threat that the Middle East will suffer unspecified devastation if the hostages are not released at the inauguration.
“If they are not back by the time I come to power, all hell will break loose in the Middle East, and that will not be good for Hamas, and frankly for no one. All hell will break loose,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Witkoff told reporters at Trump’s Florida resort that he is traveling to “hopefully get it done” and outlined part of the deal.
He said the Trump team “aspirationally” hoped a 42-day ceasefire would be declared sometime before the inauguration.
A senior Biden administration official told NBC News on Tuesday that it will know within the next 24 to 48 hours whether a deal was likely, but that there is a decent chance of reaching one.
The deal includes 34 hostages, although it is unclear how many are still alive, a separate senior government official said.
A US official says they are optimistic a deal is close, but they have been optimistic in the past – when deals fell through. And White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday — ahead of a trip to the region — that the new deal is “both urgent and possible.”
But another senior government official warned that “it’s possible we’ll get there, but it’s not on the brink. Hamas must come to a political decision that they want to do this and that it is now or never.”
Negotiations have been tense, with this official saying: “We find that Sinwar’s brother, Mohammed Sinwar, is even more stubborn than his late brother.” (Mohammed succeeded his brother, Yahta Sinwar, as leader of Hamas after Yahta was killed by Israeli forces in October.)
Two White House officials say they shared progress with incoming national security adviser Mark Walz and other incoming Trump officials — including Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio — as they did on the Lebanon ceasefire .
Trump and Biden’s teams have been working together on the deal since shortly after the election, with Witkoff praising Biden’s team – but also suggesting that Trump’s reputation is driving the negotiations and that “it [his] force that sets things in motion.”
“At the end of a 42-day ceasefire, that is when the president will be inaugurated,” Witkoff told reporters on Tuesday. “So it will be the president who will be most relevant. He will be in office when that 42-day ceasefire is over – that’s what Hamas cares about, how we move to phase two.”
Several Biden and Israeli officials have acknowledged that the president-elect’s rhetoric — particularly a Dec. 2 Truth Social post that used “all hell to pay” language — was a “big factor” in the fact that Hamas and Israel started taking the talks more seriously.
But another senior administration official downplayed Witkoff’s role, saying that “we are at this stage of negotiations thanks to months of painstaking diplomacy,” noting that the deal on the table is the same one Biden outlined in May.
That said, the official noted, “the obstacle remains Hamas, and the pressure on Hamas will only continue until it agrees to release hostages under that proposal.” The official said: “We are working with ‘Steve) Witkoff and are in discussions with him and the Trump team. We will keep them informed because we want to ensure that if this is not possible before January 20, a smooth transfer takes place. ”
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages hold a protest calling for their release in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem on October 7, 2024.
An Israeli official previously told NBC that Hamas knows that once Trump is president, they could lose their influence because he is more likely to side with Israel than Biden — and less likely to push for the release of Hamas prisoners if part of the deal.
There are questions about the number of hostages still alive — and while Witkoff wouldn’t speak to the exact number, he said he has seen intelligence reports and “it’s not a small number.”
However, a US official declined to give a figure but said it was lower than previously thought.
Trump, apparently moved by his calls to the American families of hostages, said: “But I’ve seen mothers coming to me and fathers crying: Can I get their son’s body back? Can I get their daughter’s body back?”
Israeli and American families of hostages have called for the bodies of their loved ones to be returned for a proper burial, but are also urging Israeli and American negotiators to make the release of surviving hostages their top priority.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
