Qatari mediators are urging Hamas to quicken the pace of hostage releases to include women and children held in Gaza and to do so without expecting Israeli concessions, according to three diplomats and a source in the region familiar with the talks, as Israel readies a ground assault on the enclave.

The Gulf state, in coordination with the US, is leading mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials over the release of more than 200 hostages captured in the Palestinian group’s cross-border onslaught on Oct 7.

Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli civilian women captives from the besieged enclave following the release of two hostages with dual US-Israeli nationality on Friday.

Qatar is now discussing a larger release of civilians with Hamas and Israel, a fifth source told Reuters on Tuesday after being briefed on the negotiations. The source said the talks were progressing.

The talks are not about any of the Israeli soldiers held by Hamas, the diplomats and regional source familiar with the talks said. Hamas says such captive soldiers are strategic assets the group can eventually exchange for major concessions from Israel.

In Washington, two US sources said that it was the US understanding that Qatar is pushing Hamas to release a large group of hostages immediately and without expecting any Israeli concessions in return.

Some 222 people aged from 9 months to 85 years were seized on Oct. 7 when Hamas went on a killing spree through southern Israel, shooting motorists, hunting down civilians including children in their own homes, and burning and stabbing people to death, according to survivors’ accounts. 

LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE

In response, Israel has launched a bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 5,700 people, buried families in the rubble of their apartment blocks, maimed thousands and displaced a million people. It now plans a ground assault to destroy Hamas.

Among the arguments three of the sources say Qatar may be using in its contacts with Hamas is that releasing a large group of civilian hostages would ease a big logistical burden for the group as it navigates its confrontation with Israel.

Feeding and accommodating the captives, and tending to those who are wounded, are difficult for Hamas at a time when it is bracing for an Israeli assault and there is little food or medicine to spare for Gaza’s 2.3 million population, the diplomats and source said.

Keeping track of the captives, held by several groups in various locations, makes this task even more onerous, three of the sources said.

A source in the region familiar with the hostage negotiations said it appeared that Hamas had not anticipated taking so many hostages and had not made preparations for keeping so many individuals. Israeli officials have said many of the captives could be held in the warren of tunnels under Gaza.

When its fighters stormed into Israel on Oct 7, “Hamas did not expect the operation would be as catastrophically successful as it was. Now they have all these hostages and they don’t know what to do with them,” the source in the region added.

Qatar has also argued to Hamas that a large civilian release could reap diplomatic benefits by showing the group, seen as a terrorist organization by many Western countries, as sensitive to international humanitarian concerns over the captivity of children and other non-combatants, two of the sources said.

CAPTIVE SOLDIERS

A Hamas representative in Qatar did not respond to a request for comment. The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to an email seeking comment.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli official said Hamas was using the hostage crisis for propaganda, trying to present itself as humane by releasing a handful of people they kidnapped. The official described this as “Nazi psychological warfare”.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday that Washington wanted “to see all the hostages released. We want to see them released unconditionally, and we want to see them released as soon as possible.”

A release of civilians would still leave Hamas holding Israeli soldiers and security personnel. Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said on Saturday the fate of Israeli army captives was related to a possible exchange of prisoners and in any case would not be discussed until Israel stopped attacking Gaza.

Qatar, which has ambitious foreign policy goals, has a direct line of communication with Hamas and Israel. It has previously helped mediate truces between the two.

A US priority is to allow more time for negotiations on the release of hostages. But time may be running short.

The US has advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault and is keeping Qatar apprised of that effort as the Gulf state seeks to mediate further hostage releases, two sources in Washington briefed on the hostage negotiations said on Monday.

Voicing against the multiple criminal charges against him, former US President Donald Trump made his comparison to former South African President Nelson Mandela stating that he is “doing it for a reason”, CNN reported on Tuesday.

Addressing a crowd of supporters at a Derry, New Hampshire, rally, Trump said, “I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela, because I’m doing it for a reason.”

The remark from Trump — who has been indicted four times and faces 91 criminal charges across the cases — came after he filed to appear on the presidential ballot in New Hampshire.

Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing two federal indictments brought by special counsel Jack Smith, as well as state criminal prosecutions in New York and Georgia. Some of the most severe charges against him are in connection with his alleged mishandling of classified information and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, CNN reported.

Recently, Trump has also been appearing in person at his civil fraud case in New York, where a judge has found him and his eldest sons liable for fraud.

His comparison to Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-apartheid activist is in line with his recent comment, where he stated that he is “willing to go to jail, if that’s what it takes for our country to win and become a democracy again.”

As he eyes a potential general election rematch with President Joe Biden, Trump focused a large portion of his campaign speech Monday on Israel’s war with Hamas, using it to criticize Biden’s recent address to the nation and arguing that Americans are less safe under his administration, CNN reported.

He called for the US to build a missile defense system like Israel’s Iron Dome, and said he wanted to “build a shield around our country.”

Trump, further claimed that a vote for Biden in 2024 would be “a vote to turn the United States into a hotbed of jihadists and make our cities into dumping grounds very much resembling the Gaza Strip.”

The former president has used Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel and the resulting war in arguing for his hard-line immigration policies, including implementing a travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries if he were to win reelection, CNN reported.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday warned Iran that the United States would respond “decisively” to any attack by its proxies, as tensions rise with the Israel-Hamas war.

“The United States does not seek conflict with Iran. We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack US personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people, we will defend our security — swiftly and decisively,” Blinken told a UN Security Council session.

The United States has accused Iran of assisting a renewal of attacks on US forces based in Iraq as part of a coalition against the Islamic State group.

Iran’s clerical leadership supports Hamas, which carried out a bloody assault on October 7 inside Israel which has responded with massive retaliation. Iran also has a close relationship with Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah which has had repeated conflicts with Israel.

The United States, the top diplomatic backer of Israel, last week vetoed a draft resolution on the conflict, saying it should have explicitly defended Israel’s right to self-defence.

The United States has put forward a new resolution seen by AFP that would voice sympathy for both Israeli and Palestinian casualties and defend “the inherent right of all states to individual and collective self-defence” while complying with obligations under international law.

The new resolution “incorporates substantive feedback that we received from fellow Council members over recent days,” Blinken said.

Sharing graphic accounts of Hamas militants killing children and other civilians, Blinken asked, “Where’s the outrage? Where’s the revulsion? Where’s the rejection? Where’s the explicit condemnation of these horrors?”

“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such harm from repeating itself. No member of this Council —  no nation in this entire body — could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken said.