President elect Donald Trump sent his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to Qatar and Israel in an effort to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal before he takes office on January 20, a source told the Times of Israel. This follows Witkoff’s separate meeting in late November with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also foreign minister, the source said.
“There are plans for a subsequent round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to take place potentially in Doha soon, but no specific date has been set,” the first source said.
While Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the ceasefire talks were on hold, the source told the Times of Israel that the spokesperson’s announcement was a smokescreen, as Doha was not ready to publicly confirm a resumption of its mediation efforts less than a month after it announced a pause.
“Both agreed a Gaza ceasefire is needed before Trump’s inauguration so that once the Trump administration takes office it can move onto other issues, like stabilizing Gaza and the region,” said the source, who had been briefed on meetings between Witkoff, Qatar and Israel and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Witkoff met Netanyahu in Israel the next day after his meeting with the Qatari foreign minister but Netanyau’s office did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. A day later, al-Thani traveled to Vienna to meet Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea, who has led Israel’s talks for a hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire. According to Israel’s Channel 12 news, an Israeli delegation is set to travel to Cairo early next week to discuss a new proposal put together by Egypt.
The proposal envisions a staged release of hostages alongside an initial temporary ceasefire of 45 to 60 days.
Trump said on Dec. 1 there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages held in the Gaza Strip were not released prior to his inauguration. On Wednesday, he named Adam Boehler, a lead negotiator of the Abraham, as his pick for special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.
