After deadlock in Doha hostage talks, Israeli team heads to Cairo in search of results
US envoy Witkoff warns Hamas to ‘get sensible,’ agree to deal that would free 5 living hostages; says he discussed the demilitarization of Gaza with Arab leaders in Doha
An Israeli negotiating team departed for Cairo on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, as Jerusalem continued its efforts to reach a deal with Hamas for an extension of the ceasefire deal and the release of additional hostages.
Negotiators were meeting with senior Egyptian officials, Netanyahu’s office said, after a team returned from Doha on Friday following an unsuccessful round of talks.
The talks in Doha appeared to hit a gridlock after Hamas announced on Friday that it was willing to release US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, along with the bodies of four others with dual Israeli-US citizenship, in what appeared to be a rejection of a bridge proposal put forward by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
The offer was dismissed by both Israel and the US as disingenuous, and Witkoff charged that the terror group was “claiming flexibility” in public while making “impractical” demands in private.
The US envoy warned during CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that there would be consequences for Hamas if it does not accept his bridge proposal for the ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The terror group’s counter-offer, he said, was a “non-starter.”
“I think there’s an opportunity for them,” he said of the terror group and its chance to negotiate for an extension of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, “but the opportunity is closing fast.”
He pointed to the massive strikes that the US carried out against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen over the weekend, arguing that they demonstrated “where we stand with regard to terrorism and our tolerance level for terrorist actions.”
“I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible than how they have been,” he added.
Turning to the US’s efforts to extend the truce in Gaza and free more hostages after the first phase of a fragile agreement came to an end earlier this month, Witkoff said he spent seven and a half hours in meetings with negotiators in Doha on Wednesday.
Those talks led to the crafting of a “bridge proposal,” he said, confirming for the first time that it would ensure the release of five living Israeli hostages, including Alexander, in exchange for “a substantial amount of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, which would be a wonderful thing for these Palestinian families.”
The details of the deal offered by Witkoff appeared in line with those widely reported in recent days, but contradicted those provided on Saturday night by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which said that the proposal envisioned the release of 11 living hostages at the start of an extended ceasefire.
The ceasefire would last until the end of the Passover holiday in mid-April, Israel said, and there would be an opportunity for the release of the remaining hostages at the end of that period.
The Trump envoy said Israel was informed and consulted with in advance regarding the proposal being offered to Hamas. When the terror group received the offer, Witkoff said it took them two or three days to respond, “which is their usual mode.”
He said that the group’s negotiators then came back with something that was “unacceptable,” but declined to elaborate.
Like Witkoff, Israel has called repeatedly on Hamas to accept the offer. An Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Sunday, however, that Netanyahu’s aides do not believe Hamas will ever accept it.
“It’s not going to happen,” said the official. “Everyone is well aware of this.”
Instead, the official said Israel’s insistence that Hamas accept the proposal is a negotiating tactic.
“The goal is to get more than just American hostages out because that’s not acceptable in Israel,” the official said of Hamas’s counter-proposal for the release of dual US-Israeli national Alexander, and the bodies of US-Israeli citizens Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai, and Judy Weinstein.
If the negotiations fail and Hamas refuses to release hostages who don’t have US citizenship, Israel will end the ceasefire, said the official, warning that “there are war plans crafted.”
“There won’t be an endless amount of time — several weeks at the very most.”
As for Israel’s participation in the Doha talks, the official said a team would be dispatched once Washington gives the “green light.”
Witkoff, Arab leaders talk demilitarizing Hamas
In another interview on Sunday, this time with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Witkoff looked ahead to a more permanent end to the war in Gaza.
Asked about whether the US was in talks with any specific countries about taking in Palestinians from the war-torn coastal enclave, he avoided giving a direct answer, saying instead that US President Donald Trump’s administration was “exploring all alternatives and options that lead to a better life for Gazans.”
Witkoff and Trump have previously pushed for Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians, though both countries have vehemently rejected the idea and have instead backed an Arab plan for the post-war management of Gaza that would allow Palestinians to remain in the Strip while it is being rebuilt.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that Israel and the US had been in contact with Sudan and Somalia, as well as the unrecognized breakaway state of Somaliland, about resettling Gazans there. Officials from Sudan and Somalia said they had rejected the overtures, while Somaliland officials told AP that they were not aware of any contacts.
Witkoff offered CBS a similar update on the hostage negotiations as the one he gave to CNN, and reiterated that Hamas’s response to his bridging proposal was “not encouraging.”
The US envoy told the news outlet that during his Wednesday visit to Doha to participate in hostage deal talks, he also met with top officials from Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Palestinian Authority.
He said the summit discussed a final peace resolution for Gaza in which Hamas would be demilitarized, “which must happen.”
“That’s a red line for the Israelis,” he said.
The Gaza terror group has rejected this demand to date, but has privately told Arab mediators that it is prepared to give up governing control of the Strip, two senior Arab diplomats have told the Times of Israel.
The future of the Gaza Strip and how it will shape up is still up in the air, as Israel and Hamas have yet to even reach an agreement on temporarily extending the ceasefire and hostage release deal that began on January 19.
The deal was supposed to transition from phase one to phase two on March 2, with negotiations on the second stage slated to begin on the 16th day of the first stage. However, for almost a month, Israel refused to hold negotiations on the terms of phase two, which would require it to withdraw fully from Gaza and agree to permanently end the war — a red line for the government’s right-wing flank.
After the first phase expired, Israel, with the White House’s subsequent backing, halted the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Under the ceasefire agreement, the flow of aid was to continue as long as talks for the second phase were ongoing.
The first phase saw Hamas release 33 women, children, civilian men and those deemed “humanitarian cases,” in exchange for some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, including over 270 serving life terms in connection with the murders of dozens of Israelis.
The second phase would see Hamas release 24 hostages still believed to be alive, including Alexander. All are young men abducted on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, taking 251 hostages, and sparking the war in Gaza.
Another 35 hostages who were confirmed by Israel to be dead are held captive in Gaza. They include 34 kidnapped in the Hamas onslaught and a soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war. The slain captives would be returned in the deal’s potential third phase.
Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
