• UAE in talks with US, Israel about provisional govt for post-conflict Palestinian enclave
• Qatar confirms “technical meetings” in progress

JERUSALEM: Hamas stood by its demand on Tuesday that Israel fully end its assault on Gaza under any deal to release prisoners, and said US president-elect Donald Trump was rash to say there would be “hell to pay” unless they go free by his Jan 20 inauguration.

The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a deal before Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region now view Trump’s inauguration as an unofficial deadline.

But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.

Hamas says it will free its remaining prisoners only if Israel agrees to end the conflict and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the conflict until Hamas is dismantled and all prisoners are free.

“Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages,” the director general of Israel’s foreign ministry, Eden Bar Tal, told a briefing with reporters, saying Israel was fully committed to reaching a deal.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a news conference in Algiers, said Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a deal.

While he said he would not give details about the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated the Hamas conditions of “a complete end to the aggression and a full withdrawal from lands the occupation invaded”.

Commenting on Trump’s threat that there would be “hell to pay” unless all prisoners were freed before the inauguration, Hamdan said: “I think the US president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.”

Officials from the group and Israel have been holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intensive effort for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, as diplomatic talks continue, Israeli military strikes killed at least 10 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to maintain medical services.

One of those strikes killed four people in a house in Beach camp in Gaza City, while the remaining six were killed in separate strikes across the enclave, medics said.

Mediation efforts

The United Arab Emirates has discussed with Israel and the United States participating in a provisional administration of post-conflict Gaza until a reformed Palestinian Authority is able to take charge, according to people familiar with the talks.

The behind-the-scenes discussions included the possibility of the UAE and the United States, along with other nations, temporarily overseeing the governance, security and reconstruction of Gaza after the Israeli military withdraws and until a Palestinian administration is able to take over, several foreign diplomats and Western officials said.

Separately, talks aimed at cementing a truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas are ongoing, with “technical meetings” taking place between the parties, mediator Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

“The technical meetings are still happening between both sides,” ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said, referring to meetings with lower-level officials on the details of an agreement.

“There are no principal meetings taking place at the moment.”

The UAE is a close security partner of the US and, unlike most Arab governments, has diplomatic ties with Israel. The diplomats and officials said this provides the Gulf state with some leverage over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Abu Dhabi is advocating for a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem under an independent Palestinian state, the sources said — something that Israel has publicly opposed.

The UAE will not participate in any plan that fails to include significant reform of the Palestinian Authority, its empo­wer­ment, and the establishment of a credible roadmap toward a Palestinian state,“ a UAE official said, in response to questions about the discussions.

“These elements — which are currently lacking — are essential for the success of any post-Gaza plan.”

A US State Department spokesperson said there had been talks with several partners, including the UAE, on options for governance, security and reconstruction, and that various draft proposals, plans and ideas had been put forward by partners.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2025