CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump warned that if hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas are not released by the time he is inaugurated on January 20, “all hell will break out in the Middle East.”
“It will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is,” Trump said in remarks at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Tuesday, adding that “there should have never been” the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s pick to serve as the special envoy to the Middle East, struck an optimistic note about the state of negotiations to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that would secure the release of the hostages, saying negotiators are “making a lot of progress.”
In remarks with the incoming president on Tuesday, Witkoff said he is “really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president.”
“It’s the president, his reputation, the things that he has said that are driving this negotiation, and so hopefully it’ll all work out and we’ll save some lives,” Witkoff added.
But a senior Biden administration official struck a different tone following Trump and Witkoff’s remarks, telling CNN that the negotiations remain “difficult.”
The official – who declined to comment further on the status of the talks – insisted that the negotiations remained challenging. The Biden administration continues to work in “close coordination” with the incoming Trump national security team, they added.
The Biden administration has unsuccessfully tried to help broker a ceasefire in Gaza for well over a year. The first ceasefire – weeks after the October 7 attack – saw the release of dozens of hostages, but subsequent efforts to pause the fighting and secure the release of additional hostages have gone nowhere.
Witkoff told reporters he expected to travel back to Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday. White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk is in the region to work on the Gaza ceasefire deal.
This story is breaking and will be updated.