U.S. President Donald Trump said over the weekend that his administration is engaged in “deep negotiations” with Hamas, and he issued a new warning to the terror group: "If you don't let them all out, it's going to be a tough situation, it's going to be nasty."
According to Saudi-owned Al Hadath television, Trump’s special envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, has been holding talks and meetings with mediators in recent days in an effort to restart negotiations on a cease-fire in Gaza.
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Trump: 'If they don't release all the hostages, it will be nasty'
(Photos: Ariel Schalit/AP, Khalil Hamra/AP, Ronen Zvulun/Reuters, Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock)
In Washington, officials continue to voice support for Israel as the IDF deepens its Operation Gideon's Chariots II, which over the past two days has included strikes on high-rise buildings used by Hamas in Gaza City. Trump emphasized, amid demands by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel for the immediate dispatch of a negotiating team, that Israel will make the final decisions. But he said the United States is insisting on the release of all hostages still alive: “I said we want all 20 — we don’t want two.”
At the close of a protest rally held Saturday night in Paris Square in Jerusalem, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that it “demands the prime minister immediately dispatch a negotiating delegation to talks on ending the war and bringing back all the hostages.” The forum also said: “Three weeks have already passed and Israel has yet to respond to Hamas’ updated reply to the mediators. The prime minister’s personal survival instinct cannot outweigh the need to bring back all the hostages and prevent unnecessary deaths, as part of an endless war whose purpose is preserving the coalition.”
Hamas announced Saturday evening that it remains committed to the agreement it accepted in last month’s mediation proposal. “We are open to any idea or proposal that will achieve a permanent cease-fire, the full withdrawal of IDF forces from the Gaza Strip, the unconditional entry of humanitarian aid, and the release of prisoners, through serious negotiations via the mediators,” the group said.
The Qatari newspaper The New Arab reported Saturday that a senior Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo without prior notice, at the invitation of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service. According to the report, the delegation came to discuss with Egyptian officials the points recently raised by U.S. envoy Witkoff.
A source close to Hamas told Ynet that the delegation on Saturday visited Hamas prisoners released to Egypt, as it does monthly. The source said the Hamas representatives also met Egyptian intelligence officials about a deal, but the talks focused on ideas that had already been examined without success and that “there is no new progress.”
Meanwhile, The New Arab reported efforts to parse Cairo’s increasingly harsh tone toward Israel and the escalating friction between the two neighbors, which peaked in a public statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemning Israel. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Telegram interview: “I can open the crossing (Rafah) for them (Gazans), but it will be blocked immediately on the other side in Egypt,” Egypt’s Foreign Ministry issued a strong condemnation: “These are attempts to prolong the escalation and to avoid dealing with the consequences of Israel’s violations in Gaza.”
The prime minister’s office responded to Egypt’s criticism, saying that “contrary to the claim, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke about the free choice of every individual to decide his or her place of residence — this is a basic human right at any time, and especially during war. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry prefers to imprison Gaza residents who want to leave the war zone against their will.”
An Egyptian source who spoke to the Qatari newspaper said Egypt’s critical statements were “a natural escalation in light of Israel’s actions, which amount to war crimes against civilians and are intended to push Palestinians to flee toward Egypt.” He predicted the current escalation would continue at least until the French-Saudi committee meeting scheduled for Sept. 22 during the UN General Assembly.
Diplomatic sources told the newspaper that Cairo, in parallel, is conducting intensive talks with the U.S. administration on Washington’s opposition to “breaking through the Egyptian border” to transfer Gaza residents into Egypt. The report said Cairo has also held discussions with Arab governments to strengthen Egypt’s position against what it views as Israeli displacement efforts.