With an Israeli delegation reportedly headed to Cairo, hopes were rising for a cease-fire and hostage release.
Amid reports that Gaza cease-fire talks may be resuming, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz expressed optimism that “this time, we can truly advance a hostage deal.”
A Qatari newspaper reported that an Israeli delegation—headed by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar—was set to travel to Cairo on Dec. 5 for talks on a potential deal over hostages and a cease-fire.
Katz, speaking to soldiers at an air force base in central Israel, attributed the improved outlook to Israeli military pressure on Hamas.
The development comes after a Lebanon cease-fire began on Nov. 27.
On Dec. 2, President-elect Donald Trump said there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages held in Gaza were not released before his inauguration.
Trump’s nominee for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, was set to meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer on Dec. 4.
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Hezbollah, which had previously refused to consider a cease-fire unless Israel pulled out of Gaza, was hard hit in recent months.
The Israeli army eliminated many of the terrorist group’s top leaders, including longtime head Hassan Nasrallah, with targeted air strikes.
And in an audacious strike on Sept. 17, thousands of pagers exploded on their Hezbollah users simultaneously—followed by a second wave of exploding handheld radios the next day—further crippling its leadership ranks.
At least 39 people were killed in the blasts, and Lebanon said nearly 3,000 others were wounded.
Hamas, in more than a year of warfare started by its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, has suffered the same kinds of losses.
Trump’s impending return to power may be loosening a diplomatic logjam lasting more than a year.
The United States, Egypt, and Qatar have tried unsuccessfully to broker a cease-fire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in exchange for the return of around 100 hostages, a third of whom are believed dead, still held by Hamas after having been taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked him in a Dec. 3 post on X. “I want to thank President Trump for his strong statement yesterday about the need for Hamas to release the hostages, the responsibility of Hamas, and this adds another force to our continued effort to release all the hostages.”
Israeli ministers also thanked the president-elect.
“How refreshing it is to hear clear and morally sound statements that do not create a false equivalence or call for addressing ‘both sides’, but rather clarify who are the good and who are the bad,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters, and defeating them, rather than giving in to their absurd demands,” he said.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said simply on X: “Thank you, President Trump.”
People in Tel Aviv, Israel, shout slogans during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of Hamas’ hostages, on Nov. 16, 2024. Francisco Seco/AP Photo
A senior Hamas official interpreted Trump’s words as directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Basem Naim said Netanyahu had sabotaged all efforts to secure a deal that involved exchanging the hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Naim said Trump’s message was intended to pressure Netanyahu to “end this evil game.”
A Gaza political analyst, Ramiz Moghani, said Trump’s words might embolden Israel not only to expel Palestinians from Gaza but also to annex the West Bank, which many Israelis refer to as Judea and Samaria.
An eight-day cease-fire took place in late November 2023, during which more than 100 Israeli hostages were released. Since then, little progress has been made, with each side blaming the other.
Meanwhile, fighting has continued across Gaza.
On Dec. 4, an Israeli strike on a camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people near Khan Yunis killed 21 people and wounded 29, a Palestinian health official said.
Gaza health authorities do not distinguish between civilians and fighters from Hamas and other terrorist groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Fighting was also reported in Rafah and near a hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.
Further Hamas threats against the hostages have come to light.
In an internal statement on Nov. 22, Hamas told its operatives Israel intended to carry out a hostage rescue operation and threatened to “neutralize” the captives in that event.
Hamas told its operatives not to consider any repercussions of following the instructions.
Talks between Hamas and Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, to cooperate in a postwar unity government in Gaza have apparently failed.
A senior Palestinian source told Israel’s I24 TV news that Hamas requested both the financial and security portfolios, which the source termed “a return to the old formulation.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
