WSJ: Qatar threatening to deport Hamas chiefs if they don’t agree to hostage truce deal

Qatar is threatening to expel Hamas’s leaders from Qatar if they can’t convince them to agree to a hostage deal, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing an unnamed Hamas official and Egyptian official.

Qatar hosts Hamas’s political bureau, including its leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

Husam Badran, a senior official of the terror group based in Doha, denies the claim. He tells the WSJ that without a deal, violence will escalate during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, set to begin this week.

“We didn’t declare negotiations have been stopped. We are the party most keen to stop this war,” he says.

Badran says Hamas’s conditions for a hostage deal include a permanent ceasefire, a return of displaced civilians to northern Gaza, boosted humanitarian aid and for Israel to pull out their troops from the Strip.

Israel wants a more limited truce and has vowed that they will continue their offensive to eliminate the terror group and free all the hostages.

Badran blames Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a lack of a breakthrough in the talks, claiming he “refuses to deal with anything on the table.”

“Netanyahu is the most dangerous [person] for the stability of this region. He is the fire starter.”