Dermer in US to meet Witkoff on ‘difficult’ phase two of hostage-ceasefire deal
Hamas accuses Israel of procrastinating over second stage talks; VP Vance says Trump will ‘fight every single day’ to bring hostages home, noting that ‘we’ve still got work to do’
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is reportedly set to meet US Mideast special envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington on Thursday to kick off talks on phase two of the hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, as mixed messaging emerges on the likelihood of a next stage.
Citing two officials, the Axios news site reported that the pair are slated to discuss a potential second phase, with negotiations expected to focus on “the endgame of the war in Gaza.”
Dermer, a close longtime confidante of Benjamin Netanyahu, has been tapped to lead the Israeli negotiating team after the prime minister sidelined the heads of the Shin Bet and the Mossad, who had been leading the talks for 15 months.
Axios also reported that Witkoff is scheduled to discuss the second stage of the deal via phone on Thursday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani.
The first phase of the ceasefire deal, which went into effect last month, is slated to end on March 1. According to the terms of the deal, negotiations on the second phase were slated to begin no later than February 3, though talks don’t appear to have begun in any meaningful way.
Speaking at a conference in Miami on Thursday, Witkoff said that “phase two is more difficult. But I think ultimately, if we work hard, that there’s a real chance of success.”
“Everybody is buying into this notion that releasing hostages is just a good thing,” Witkoff said at an FII Institute event. “It just is something that’s important and ought to happen.”
“It was good because there were going to be Palestinians released, going home to their families,” he maintained.
“The issue with phase two,” he added, “is that there’s supposed to be an end to the war as part of phase two. And I think the Israelis have a red line, which is you can’t have Hamas in the government [of Gaza]. And so it’s hard to sort of square that circle.”
Witkoff also said that Trump’s controversial post-war Gaza plan is not about evicting Palestinians and that the conversation about Gaza’s future is being shifted toward how to create a better future for Palestinians.
“It’s going to take a lot of clean-up and imagination, and a great master plan, and that doesn’t mean we’re on an eviction plan when the president talks about this,” he said.
“It means he wants to shake up everyone’s thinking and think about what is compelling and what is the best solution for the Palestinian people,” he added. “For instance, do they want to live in a home there, or would they rather have an opportunity to resettle in some sort of better place, to have jobs, upside and financial prospects.”
“I sat in Gaza with a bulletproof vest on looking at the scenery there, and I don’t know why anyone would want to live there today. It’s illogical to me,” he said, before clarifying, “It doesn’t mean that you can’t have some sort of right to return if that’s the policy prescription that works for people.”
“In Gaza, we’re so focused on the land, [but] we’ve changed the discussion now, and we’re talking about what is a better life means for people, and with a better life with this sort of aspirational opportunity, then maybe things do fundamentally change,” Witkoff said.
Trump unveiled a bombshell plan earlier this month for the US to take over Gaza, permanently displace the 2 million residents there, and rebuild the Strip as an eventual tourist mecca with beachfront hotels. The plan has been met with widespread condemnation from Arab nations, and Egypt and Jordan — which Trump has repeatedly pushed to take in Gazans — have firmly rejected it.
Arab leaders are slated to gather in Saudi Arabia on Friday to discuss “a reconstruction plan counter to Trump’s plan for Gaza.”
Hamas on Thursday accused Netanyahu of “procrastinating” on negotiations for the second phase.
“The second phase negotiations have not practically begun, and we are ready to engage in them as stipulated in the agreement,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanou said in a statement, adding that “Netanyahu is procrastinating regarding the second phase.”
On Sunday, Israel dispatched a negotiating team to Cairo to discuss the current stage of the deal, saying that a mandate to negotiate the second stage could only be granted after a security cabinet meeting on the topic. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told reporters on Tuesday that talks on phase two would begin “this week.”
According to a Channel 13 report on Thursday night, Netanyahu has made several new demands in talks on the second phase.
The network reported that as a precondition for the permanent end to the war, Netanyahu is demanding the Hamas leadership be exiled abroad, that Gaza be demilitarized, and that Israel maintain security control over the Strip.
US Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Trump is making supreme efforts to ensure all of the hostages are freed soon.
“Our message to the hostages is that President Trump loves you, he hasn’t forgotten your loved ones and he’s going to fight every single day to bring them home. That is exactly what he has been doing, and that’s what he’ll keep on doing,” Vance told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, with several relatives of Israeli hostages in attendance.
“It’s just a question of leadership,” he added. “You need a president who is able to pick up the phone and say: ‘You’ve got to bring these people home. No, no no no. We’re not focused on that crap right now. We’re focused on bringing hostages home.’”
Vance said that when “negotiations hit a wall, because they always do, you need a president who gets on the phone and says: ‘Cut this crap out. You’ve got to make progress. You’ve got to keep that pace going.’ It’s leadership. I saw it behind the scenes.”
The vice president said that what Trump did was “empower… his dear friend Steve Witkoff as an emissary of the United States. He said: ‘Steve, you speak for me. Get it done. And if there are problems, call me.’”
Vance added: “Steve Witkoff, with the president’s leadership, got it done.”
The vice president acknowledged, however, that “we’ve still got work to do. We’ve got to finish the process. The president is committed to this more than any leader in my lifetime. We’re going to keep on fighting for it.”
Meanwhile, a pro-Netanyahu Israeli TV network reported again on Thursday that there will be no second phase of the ceasefire-hostage deal and that Israel will return to fighting Hamas in Gaza.
Channel 14 — the only Israeli outlet to which the prime minister has granted interviews since 2021 — reported without sourcing on Thursday that the security establishment is instead looking into extending the ongoing first phase by two weeks.
On Sunday, the network cited a senior Israeli official saying that there would not be any second phase of the deal with Hamas. The outlet — which was seen as having regular access to Netanyahu and his inner circle — claimed that a final decision had been made with the Americans and the ceasefire would end and that Israel would “open the gates of hell” on Gaza.
This messaging comes as government officials told other news outlets that it will hold negotiations on the second phase.
Speaking to MSNBC on Thursday, President Isaac Herzog mourned the return to Israel of the bodies of four hostages and stressed the need to reach the second stage of the deal.
“We have to negotiate the next phase, and I am hopeful, and I’m definitely extremely supportive of getting to the next phase so that we can bring everybody back home, and we can create a trajectory that changes reality in the Middle East, especially between Israel and Gaza,” he said.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.