Sullivan: Hamas Is 'feeling The Pressure’
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that the militant group Hamas is feeling the pressure in the wake of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal last week.
“I do think that Hamas is feeling the pressure. They're feeling the pressure because one of their main partners in crime here, Hezbollah, has now cut a ceasefire deal, and they thought that Hezbollah would be with them till the end,” Sullivan told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
The agreement to end the fighting across the Israeli-Lebanon border was struck on Tuesday and sparked a new push for a ceasefire in Gaza from the Biden administration.
Sullivan said that Hamas is also feeling pressure after the October killing of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
“They're feeling the pressure, of course, because their top leader, Sinwar, has been killed,” Sullivan said. “So, they may be looking anew at the possibility of getting a ceasefire and hostage deal. And we are working actively with all of the key players in the region, including Israel and Turkey and Qatar and Egypt, to try to bring that about. In the coming days, conversations will be happening, even this very day, to try to make that happen as soon as possible.”
Sullivan also discussed the release of a video of Israeli-American Edan Alexander speaking about the horrors of life as a captive of Hamas for more than 420 days.
The White House has called the video a ‘cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror.’
The video was posted to Telegram and had a message for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President-elect Trump, asking him to use his influence to negotiate for freedom and to "not make the mistake Biden has been doing."
Sullivan told CBS on Sunday that the administration was in touch with Alexander’s family the day before and plans to talk to them again this week.