U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner heading to Egypt as Gaza ceasefire talks continue
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are planning to head to Egypt on Tuesday and arrive there Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter, as indirect peace talks between Israel and Hamas continue.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Witkoff and Kushner were on hand to take part in the talks, which are focused on a plan proposed by Mr. Trump last week that aims to end the war in Gaza.
The indirect talks, with Egypt and Qatar acting as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas, resumed on Tuesday for a second day in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. They were being held as neighboring Israel marked two years since the Hamas attack that triggered the war.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told journalists that members of the U.S. delegation would join the talks on Wednesday.
Senior officials from the U.S., Qatar and Turkey continue to arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh to join the negotiations, a senior Egyptian official involved in the talks told The Associated Press.
The official said Hamas has demanded guarantees that Israel won’t return to war after the release of the remaining 48 hostages who were taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Israel believes 20 of them are still alive. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive, closed-door negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war will only end when all the remaining hostages are returned and Hamas — which the U.S. and Israel consider to be a terrorist organization — has been disarmed. He has accepted Mr. Trump’s plan, which calls for Gaza to be placed under international governance and for Hamas to be disarmed — demands that its leaders have yet to accept.
The plan has received widespread international backing. Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday that he thought there was a “really good chance” of a lasting deal.
“This is beyond Gaza,” he said. “Gaza is a big deal, but this is really peace in the Middle East.”
The plan envisions Israel withdrawing its troops from Gaza after Hamas disarms, and an international security force being put in place. The territory would be placed under international governance, with Mr. Trump and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair overseeing it.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Hamas reiterated its longstanding demands for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza but said nothing about disarmament.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Most have since been released in ceasefires or other deals.
The war that has ensued has killed at least 67,160 Palestinians and left nearly 170,000 wounded, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, says more than half of the deaths were women and children.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the hostilities have created “a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale that defied comprehension.” Mr. Trump’s proposal “presents an opportunity that must be seized to bring this tragic conflict to an end,” he said in a statement.
Part of the plan is to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza, where more than 2 million Palestinians are facing hunger and, in some areas, famine.
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, said Monday’s talks went on for around four hours. He said on Tuesday that Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who is also the country’s minister of foreign affairs, will join the negotiations on Wednesday.
Israel’s delegation included Gal Hirsch, coordinator for the hostages and the missing from Netanyahu’s office. Hamas representatives included top negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya.
contributed to this report.
