From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Witkoff asserts his commitment to reaching hostage deal’s second phase
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff asserts his commitment to reaching the second phase of the Gaza hostage deal, in light of concerns that Israel will resume fighting after the first stage is over.
“We have to make sure that the implementation goes well, because if it goes well, we’ll get into phase two, and we’re going to get a lot more live bodies out,” Witkoff says, in an interview with Fox News.
While Trump has said that he wants to see all of the hostages released and the war end, he admitted on Monday that he is not confident that the ceasefire will hold. Asked about that lack of confidence, Witkoff says he does not disagree with the president and that implementation of the second phase will likely be more difficult than the initial agreement.
Witkoff reiterates his plan to soon visit Israel and Gaza in order to see the deal through on the ground, but he does not give an exact timeline for when he will depart.
He says he will visit both the Philadelphi Corridor border stretch between Israel and Gaza, along with the Netzarim Corridor that bisects the upper and lower halves of the Strip. Witkoff adds that he will be part of an inspection team of outside observers responsible for ensuring that people entering the latter corridor are unarmed and do not have “bad motivations.”
Witkoff says senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk’s recent statement to The New York Times that Hamas is prepared to enter a dialogue with the new Trump administration would be welcome if accurate.
The Times of Israel Community.