Right now, the Israel-Hamas peace deal is being held together by a thread.
There are serious issues concerning a demand made by Israel, and another kicker is a lack of information about the location of the remains of the last few hostages.
President Donald Trump is trying to hold things together, and he is now even considering offering a bounty to residents in Gaza to help find the missing bodies.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is reportedly not stressing over the more than a dozen dead bodies that have yet to be returned.
Hamas claims it does not know where the bodies are, and Israel says Hamas is lying.
The bad news is that without these bodies, the peace deal does not move forward, but Witkoff remains confident, stating, “We’ve gotten 10 back and we will pursue the return of the balance of the deceased until they all will come home and I’m confident that it will happen.”
According to recent reports, Trump may have another solution.
I noted the other day that if Trump wants to keep this peace deal in place, he is going to have to find a way to pacify Israel because its leaders are livid over these missing bodies.
So, now Trump is reportedly considering offering a bounty to locals who could locate the bodies.
A Trump adviser stated, "We're probably going to put together some sort of program where we're going to ask people to see if they can help us to locate bodies. And we're going to pay rewards for that type of good behavior.”
I am all for this and anything else that keeps this peace deal moving forward, though there are other challenges that still remain.
One of the key stipulations of the Trumo deal is that Hamas must lay down its arms, but one of its leaders, Mohammed Nazzal, is being iffy about the likelihood of that.
When asked directly about whether the group would disarm, he responded, “I can’t answer with a yes or no. Frankly, it depends on the nature of the project. The disarmament project you’re talking about, what does it mean? To whom will the weapons be handed over?”
To Israel, this facet of the deal is just as important as securing the return of the hostages, and the country is ready to fire up the war engine once more if Hamas reneges. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, “Hamas is supposed to release all hostages in stage 1. It has not. Hamas knows where the bodies of our hostages are. Hamas are to be disarmed under this agreement. No ifs, no buts. They have not. Hamas need to adhere to the 20-point plan. They are running out of time.”
To that point, Trump has promised to go in and disarm Hamas if its leaders do not do it on their own. Trump has to keep Israel cool, or this deal will fall apart, but the question remains: how can he keep Hamas on point not to screw the entire thing up?
