From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
State Department: Witkoff heading to Doha as talks on hostage release-ceasefire deal continue
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff is heading to the region in order to advance ongoing negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce says.
While Bruce doesn’t say where Witkoff will be traveling, telling reporters during a briefing that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio only briefed her that he was heading “to the Gaza area,” a source involved in the mediation effort tells The Times of Israel that the US envoy will head to Doha, where the negotiations are taking place.
Witkoff’s presence in Doha has been framed as an indicator that talks are nearing a conclusion, as negotiators have said he only wants to join the talks when they reach a point where they are ready for an agreement to be announced.
However, the source involved in the negotiations says that mediators are still waiting for a response from Hamas to an updated Israeli proposal regarding the redeployment of IDF troops in Gaza during the 60-day truce under discussion.
Bruce says that the ceasefire deal under discussion will also include the establishment of a new humanitarian corridor to securely surge aid into Gaza.
She appears to be referring to the separate track of negotiations that have been taking place in Cairo between Israeli and Egyptian negotiators aimed at coming up with a new mechanism for aid distribution during the truce.
The source said yesterday that those talks have been progressing well and that a meeting was being planned for today between Egyptian, Israeli, and UN officials to discuss the new mechanism. The goal is to move away from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while still satisfying Israel, which argues that Hamas has exploited existing UN distribution mechanisms to divert aid, the source said.
The Times of Israel Community.