From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Witkoff says talks on 2nd phase of ceasefire to continue this week: ‘Phase two is absolutely going to begin’
Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, says that talks on phase two of the hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas will continue this week in a “location to be determined.”
Speaking to Fox News, Witkoff says he held “very productive and constructive” phone calls today with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Adbulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad.
He says he discussed with the leaders “the timing of phase two, the positions of the parties so that we can understand where we stand, and we will continue the talks later this week” in either Cairo or Doha.
He adds that phase two “is a little bit more intricate and complicated in terms of how we bring the two sides together on this.”
Witkoff explains that the second phase of the deal “contemplates an end to the war, but it also contemplates Hamas not being involved in the government and being gone from Gaza. So, we’ve got to square those two things.”
The deal itself does not stipulate that Hamas will no longer be in power at the end of phase two, but both the Biden and Trump administrations said they would not accept such a result, as has Israel.
“But phase two is absolutely going to begin,” he adds.
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Witkoff says in the live TV interview that phase two will include the release of 19 IDF soldiers. “We believe all of them are alive,” he adds. Those include Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen still held by Hamas.
Israel does not believe there are 19 living IDF soldiers held captive in Gaza. Currently there are fewer than 10 active duty IDF soldiers believed to be held alive in the Strip, as well as a number of bodies of soldiers. Hamas often refers to any adult Israeli men as IDF soldiers, and it was not clear if Witkoff was echoing that categorization.
There are 59 hostages being held who are not included in the first stage of the ceasefire — 35 of whom Israel has declared dead.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid later tweets that Witkoff told him instead that “the vast majority of the 19 young men Hamas is holding hostage and that are part of phase 2 of the Gaza deal are civilians who were kidnapped from their homes,” adding that actually “only three or four of them are soldiers.”
In reality, the majority of the young living men remaining in Hamas captivity were kidnapped from the Nova music festival.
Witkoff says “some others” will be released in the second phase, but does not elaborate. He says the phase also includes the release of bodies still held by Hamas. The terms of the deal stipulate, however, that all remaining living hostages will be released in phase two and that bodies will be released in phase three.
Reiterating his reflections from his visit to Gaza last month, Witkoff says the enclave is too dangerous for civilians to return to, given the thousands of unexploded bombs and buildings on the verge of collapse.
“There’s utter destruction. This affects phase three, which is the theoretical reconstruction of Gaza. We’re going to have to get to a reconstruction, but the devil will be in the details,” he says.
