(AFP) – The US envoy who held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas said Sunday the meeting had been “very helpful” and he was confident a hostage release deal could be reached “within weeks.” Speaking to CNN, Adam Boehler acknowledged that as a Jewish American it had been “odd” sitting face-to-face with leaders of a group that the United States has listed as a “terrorist” organization since 1997, but he did not rule out further meetings with the Palestinian militants.
Boehler said he understood Israel’s “consternation” that the United States had held talks at all with the group, but said he had been seeking to jump-start the “fragile” negotiations. “In the end, I think it was a very helpful meeting,” he said, adding: “I think something could come together within weeks… I think there is a deal where they can get all of the prisoners out, not just the Americans.”
Boehler suggested there was a chance of further talks with the militants, telling CNN: “You never know. You know sometimes you’re in the area and you drop by.” Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, taking 251 hostages including a number of Americans. An estimated 58 hostages remain in Gaza. Israel invaded Gaza in response, waging a relentless war for more than 15 months and displacing much of the population. The first phase of a truce revolving around the release of some hostages ended earlier this month, and both sides are disputing when to move into the second phase, which aims at a more permanent peace.
Last week, US President Donald Trump threatened further destruction of Gaza if all remaining hostages were not released, issuing what he called a “last warning” to Hamas leaders.
“I understand the consternation and the concern” on Israel’s part at the talks, Boehler said, adding: “We’re the United States. We’re not an agent of Israel.” He described his feelings on sitting across from the militants. “I think when you walk and you sit in front of somebody, and you know what they’ve done, it’s hard not to think of it,” he said. He said it was important to identify with their humanity, but admitted, “It definitely feels a little odd knowing what they really are.”
Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to official figures. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,458 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers these figures reliable.
Later in the evening, Boehler spoke to Israel’s Channel 12, where he was asked if the United States would support Israel if it decided to return to intense fighting in Gaza. “As of right now, the president said that he would support Israel in that, that it’s Israel’s call,” Boehler said, adding: “until I have different direction from the president, that would be the US position and my position.”
In his earlier interview with CNN, Boehler also promised to go to Syria to bring home Austin Tice, an American journalist kidnapped there in 2012. Tice was working as a freelance journalist for Agence France-Presse, The Washington Post, and other outlets when he was detained at a checkpoint in August 2012. The toppling of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December by rebels had ignited fresh hopes that Tice might be released and brought home. Boehler said he did not know if Tice was still alive. “If he’s there, I’m going to bring him home,” he told CNN. “If he’s dead, I’m going to dig up his remains with the FBI… and we’ll bring them home to his mom.”
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