US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Doha this week amid efforts to extend the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, Axios reports, citing two US officials familiar with the matter.
The report comes after Israel confirmed that a negotiating team will depart for Qatar on Monday on “the invitation of the mediators backed by the US.”
According to Axios, the Trump administration hopes to extend the first phase of the previously agreed upon hostage deal, which ended last Saturday, until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
This appears to be in line with a plan that Israel has endorsed, but which Hamas has so far rejected in favor of pursuing the terms of a potential second phase of the deal, which would require Israel to withdraw fully from Gaza and agree to a permanent end to the war in exchange for the remaining living hostages.
The talks in Doha with Witkoff in attendance will be the first since US President Donald Trump took office, as the first phase of the ceasefire deal was negotiated under his predecessor, president Joe Biden.
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