Yedioth Ahronoth Monitors America's Options Against Hamas After Weitkov's Statements

Translation by SadaNews - The website of Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper published a report on Friday, outlining the options available to the United States to pressure Hamas to release the Israeli captives from the Gaza Strip.

The site referred to the statements of U.S. envoy Steve Weitkov, who spoke about alternative options that would be considered regarding the return of the hostages, according to his words.

According to the Hebrew report, as translated by SadaNews, one option proposed to U.S. President Donald Trump is to allow Israel to unleash hell on Gaza, as he previously promised, so that Israel can complete its plans to occupy the enclave or impose a blockade on it.

It noted that in light of Trump's recent statements about his desire to end the war, it is not certain that the Americans would favor this option.

Another option is to improve the mechanism for distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and to pressure Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, in order to prevent, among other things, the emergence of harsh images of starving children in Gaza through international media as is currently happening.

The report indicated that the United States might pursue a direct agreement with Hamas to recover the bodies of hostages holding American citizenship, just as it did in the case of soldier Idan Alexander, without obliging Israel to release Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

According to the Hebrew newspaper, as translated by SadaNews, there is another option related to U.S. assistance to Israel in carrying out bold operations to rescue the hostages from Hamas's tunnels.

On the other hand, there could be U.S. pressure on Israel to show greater flexibility in negotiations to respond to Hamas's demands, and to pressure the group through Qatar and Egypt to respond to the mediators' proposal, meaning to reach a compromise and present a final mediation offer to the parties in the form of "accept or reject" the proposals, that is all or nothing.

According to the report, the United States may issue an ultimatum to Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey to expel Hamas leaders from their territories immediately, which could put tremendous pressure on the group to agree to show flexibility in the negotiations promptly.

The newspaper did not rule out that the United States might decide to give Israel the green light to eliminate Hamas's leadership abroad, or that it might threaten to target Hamas leaders in Qatar to pressure their leaders in the Gaza Strip to show flexibility.

The website stated: In light of these possibilities, it is also possible that Weitkov's statement was not outside the framework of negotiations, but rather part of it, meaning that it was only aimed at pressuring Hamas to become more flexible, with the threat of the U.S. taking further actions.