Vice President-elect J.D. Vance predicted in a new interview this weekend that there will be a deal struck for the release of some of the hostages in Gaza sometime in the final days of the Biden administration.

Vance, who resigned from his Senate seat last week ahead of his swearing-in as vice president later this month, made the comments after being asked in a “Fox News Sunday” interview about President-elect Donald Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s efforts to secure a hostage deal before the inauguration. 

Calling Witkoff a “great guy” who is doing a “great job over there,” Vance said that, “If you talk to world leaders, it’s very clear that President[-elect] Trump threatening Hamas and making it clear that there is going to be hell to pay is part of the reason why we’ve made progress on getting some hostages out. We’re hopeful there’s going to be a deal that’s struck towards the very end of Biden’s administration, maybe the last day or two, but regardless of when that deal is struck, it will be because people are terrified that they are going to be consequences for Hamas.”

“What does that look like? I think, No. 1, it means enabling the Israelis to knock out the final couple of battalions of Hamas and their leadership. It means very aggressive sanctions and financial penalties on those who are supporting terrorist organizations in the Middle East. It means actually doing the job of American leadership, which Donald Trump did very well for four years, and he’s going to do very well for the next four years,” he continued. 

On ABC’s “This Week,” incoming Trump National Security Advisor Mike Waltz added: “There are going to be consequences to those who think they can take an American. There is going to – no longer be any upside for anyone who harms Americans abroad.”

Vance and Waltz’s comments come after Witkoff said that he was “really hopeful” that negotiators were “on the verge of a deal” to announce the return of the hostages by Inauguration Day. 

“I think we’re making a lot of progress. I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha,” Witkoff said last Tuesday, referring to the Qatari capital where hostage-release and cease-fire talks are taking place. “But I think that we’ve had some really great progress and I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president.”

Witkoff noted that he believed they were “on the verge of a deal,” explaining that, “I don’t want to discuss sort of what’s delayed it. [There is] no point to being negative in any way, but I think it’s the president, his stature, what he said he expects, the red lines he’s put out there, that’s driving this negotiation.”

“Hopefully it’ll all work out and we’ll save some lives,” he added.

Witkoff, who returned to Doha as hostage talks continue with delegations from Israel and Hamas, described Trump as “exasperated” over the lack of a deal to get the hostages home. The president-elect reiterated his warning, without offering specifics, that “all hell will break loose” in the region if Hamas had not returned the remaining hostages by the time he was sworn in later this month.