Wall Street Journal: Hostage negotiations foundering again

Hostage negotiations have reached an impasse yet again due to Hamas' renewed insistence on a guaranteed pathway to a permanent end to the war, a condition Israel has long refused to agree to, according to a report yesterday (Tuesday) by the Wall Street Journal.

Despite initial optimism and reports from Israeli security sources that Hamas had become more flexible and would even agree to delay discussing an end to the war to the final stage of the proposed hostage deal, they have since reneged on this condition and now demand US and Qatari guarantees that Israel will stop the war short of destroying Hamas outright.

The deal is also being held up due to Hamas' refusal to hand over a list of hostages to be freed before a ceasefire and Israel's refusal to free some of the prisoners Hamas wants released.

A deal is thus unlikely to be struck by the time President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20, 2025. Despite Trump's threats that Hamas had better release all the hostages or else they would suffer the consequences, this does not seem to have had any effect on the terrorist group.