Israel puts screws to Hamas ahead of Trump’s Gulf trip

Israel is using President Trump’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf as a deadline for Hamas to release hostages and strike a ceasefire deal, threatening to take over the Gaza Strip and occupy it in the long term. 

Trump is scheduled to travel to the region on May 16. Israel’s security Cabinet on Sunday approved the military operation called Operation Gideon’s Chariots, warning Hamas it has 10 days to release the remaining hostages; about two dozen are believed to be alive. 

While the European Union on Monday expressed its concern over the plan, which it said threatened to worsen suffering among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Trump administration put out a statement blaming Hamas for the resumption of hostilities after a brief ceasefire. 

“The President has made clear the consequences Hamas will face if it continues to hold hostages, including American Edan Alexander, and the bodies of four Americans,” National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement. 

That threat, first delivered in early January, was viewed as a critical moment in securing a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas that lasted for six weeks between January and March and saw the release of 33 hostages. 

But there’s little indication that the Trump administration’s efforts are moving the two sides back to the negotiating table after that ceasefire crumbled and Israel again scaled up forces in the territory. 

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, is also juggling meetings in Russia over its war in Ukraine and talks with Iran over its nuclear program.

The State Department did not answer questions about when Witkoff last engaged in talks to free the hostages or if another person was taking the lead in talks. Special envoy for hostage response Adam Boehler held direct talks with Hamas in March to free the American hostages. 

Israel has seen limited success in freeing hostages through military force, while an estimated 133 people have been released through negotiations. Hamas, under military pressure, has also killed hostages before the Israeli military could reach their locations. 

Families of the remaining hostages and other critics are sounding the alarm over the impact Israel’s expanded military operation would have on hostage release efforts. 

There are approximately 24 living hostages held by Hamas, part of the original 251 people kidnapped from southern Israel during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack, when the U.S.-designated terrorist group also killed about 1,200 people. Hamas is holding the bodies of 35 others. There is one living American, Edan Alexander, and the bodies of four other Americans still in Gaza. 

“The decision yesterday of the Israeli government to expand the ground warfare in Gaza does not coincide with the goals of the war as most of the Israeli people see it,” said Ephraim Sneh, a reserve brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces, and a member of the Commanders for Israel’s Security movement. 

The movement is in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s determination to prioritize prosecuting the war over negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. 

“What the majority, the vast majority of Israel wants is to bring the hostages back, bring them home and quickly,” Sneh said in a briefing with reporters on Monday organized by MediaCentral, a nonprofit, Jerusalem-based media liaison center.

“The resumption of fighting in Gaza will not do it, on the contrary it puts the hostages under high risk that they will not survive the fighting. And of course they will not bring Hamas any closer to any exchange deal we are talking about.”

Palestinians living in Gaza are also enduring a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, made worse after Israel imposed a humanitarian aid blockade beginning last month. The blockade was meant to increase pressure on Hamas to reach a deal on the hostage release. 

But despite Israel depleting Hamas’s forces over 19 months of war, the militant group is still exercising its authority among the Palestinian population, battling and executing armed gangs looting humanitarian aid.

Trump, responding to a question on whether he supports Israel’s expanded military operation, said Monday that the U.S. is going “to help the people of Gaza get some food. People are starving, and we're going to help them get some food. … They're being treated very badly by Hamas.” 

Israel said part of its military operation is to push the enclave's 2.1 million-people population into a more concentrated area in the south and set up a humanitarian aid distribution system. 

But the United Nations Humanitarian Country Team — which leads coordinated relief efforts across the occupied Palestinian territory — said this plan violated fundamental humanitarian principles, by replacing nongovernmental organizations distributing aid with Israeli soldiers.

“This is dangerous, driving civilians into militarised zones to collect rations, threatening lives, including those of humanitarian workers,” the U.N. said, warning it would also exacerbate forced displacement across the strip. 

Fred Fleitz, vice chair of the American security program with the America First Policy Center, a home for officials from Trump’s first term, said Israel is escalating the stakes in Gaza as leverage to Arab and Gulf partners to find a serious, workable plan to replace Hamas.

Israeli officials have rejected an Egyptian proposal for a peace plan as untenable, even as Arab and Gulf countries have put their support behind that plan.  

“This pressure from Israel may get various parties to double down on better plans,” Fleitz said. 

The divide between Israel and the U.S. on one side, and Gulf and Arab countries on the other, over how to deal with Gaza is a major obstacle to Trump’s ambitions to broker ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Fleitz said it’s probably the goal for the Trump administration to make clear to Arab and Gulf states that it’s doing what it can to end the war, but that normalization shouldn’t be collateral damage. 

“The Palestinians weren't given a veto over that agreement when Trump was president the first time, and my guess is that Trump officials will make the case they shouldn't be given that veto,” Fleitz said. “Now, the Palestinians have an option to end this war, which they began, and if they don't, why should the rest of the Arab world pay a price?”

But Riyadh is adamant that a permanent ceasefire and pathway to Palestinian self-governance is essential before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman can even broach a topic of normal diplomatic ties with Israel.

It will almost certainly be near the top of the agenda when Trump meets the crown prince and other Gulf leaders later this month.