Trump’s ‘all hell’ comments a threat to Hamas, says US VP-elect Vance

A deal between Israel and Hamas, according to Vice President-elect JD Vance, could soon be reached, and the progress is being made because “people are terrified that there will be consequences for Hamas.”

“We’re hopeful there’s going to be a deal that is struck toward the very end of]Joe] Biden’s administration – maybe the last day or two”, Vance said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

When Donald Trump said last week that “all hell will break out” in the Middle East if Hamas doesn’t release the captives it holds, he was responding to a question about what he had meant.

According to Vance, “it’s very obvious that President Trump is making it clear that there will be hell to pay” and that this is one of the factors in our progress in releasing some hostages.”

Appearing to explain the practicalities of Trump’s threat, Vance said: “Now, what does that look like? Number one, in my opinion, would be enabling the Israelis to defeat Hamas’s last few battalions.

He continued, “it means very harsh sanctions and financial penalties for those who support terrorism in the Middle East.” Donald Trump has done very well for four years and will do very well for the next four years in terms of actually carrying out the American leadership’s mandate.

After Hamas led an offensive inside Israel that left at least 1, 139 people dead and more than 200 people in captivity, months of negotiations and diplomacy failed consistently to reach a ceasefire and put an end to the fighting that broke out on October 7, 2023. In response, Israel has killed more than 46, 000 Palestinians and injured more than 109, 000 to date.

However, with renewed efforts to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas, mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the US are still working.

The head of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency as well as Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, are both attending the latest round of talks in the Qatari capital, Doha.

On Monday, an Israeli official said an “outline of the deal is clear” and that they are awaiting Hamas’s response, Israeli outlet Channel 13 reported.

“If it responds soon, the details can be finalised within days”, the official said, according to the report.

Concerns about destroying Hamas

Vance’s explanation of Trump’s warning somewhat echoes what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said before that his country’s war on Gaza focused primarily on destroying Hamas and achieving “total victory.”

However, analysts have long cast doubt over any such aim, asserting that destroying the ruling entity in Gaza was unrealistic.

Mouin Rabbani, non-resident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, has said while Hamas’s military capability has certainly weakened, it “remains capable of fighting, and retains the will to fight”.

He claimed, “I don’t think anyone expected Hamas to be able to withstand a yearlong campaign of arguably the most intense bombardment and military campaign since the Second World War.”

“I believe it would make its leaders very happy with how their movement will develop in the future,” he said.

Israeli columnist Gideon Levy previously expressed fears the war may become an “endless war”, calling Netanyahu’s goal of absolute victory “ridiculous”.

“There will be no defeat here. It will continue for an eternity until Israel and Hamas, primarily Israel, realize that their efforts must end at all costs.

Netanyahu’s goal of completely destroying Hamas has been questioned by even Israeli military and political figures. In June, the spokesman for Israel’s army Daniel Hagari said Hamas is an “idea” that could not be “demolished”.

“Hamas is a party and it is implanted in people’s hearts”, he said. Who believes that we can destroy Hamas is wrong?

In comparison to the 34 percent support for Hamas in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in the previous three months, a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in June 2024 revealed.

Last month, Yair Golan, a former member of parliament and current chairman of Israel’s Democratic Party, said the war must end “with a political settlement”.

Source: Aljazeera