With Trump’s approval, Witkoff and Kushner met directly with Hamas leaders in Egypt to seal Gaza deal last week — report

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met directly with senior Hamas official Khalil al-Khaya and other Hamas leaders at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday night to seal the hostage release and ceasefire deal, Channel 12’s Barak Ravid reports.

The Qatari delegation urged the senior US officials to meet the terror leader in order to break a logjam in the talks, according to the report.

Ravid writes on Axios that, according to one source, Hamas leaders feared Israel would resume the war once the hostages were freed, and needed direct assurances that, provided Hamas kept to the deal, Trump wouldn’t let that happen.

Trump, says Axios, “had privately granted permission for Witkoff and Kushner to meet Hamas leaders if necessary to seal a deal” when he spoke with his envoys in the Oval Office ahead of their departure for Egypt.

Witkoff told Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish mediators about Trump’s okay, and the meeting went ahead, when the talks hit a deadlock, at around 11 p.m.

In the hotel room “were the Egyptian and Turkish intelligence chiefs, senior Qatari officials, and the four most senior Hamas leaders involved in the negotiations,” Ravid writes. “The Hamas team was led by Khalil al-Hayya, who had survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Doha three weeks earlier.”

During 45 minutes of talks, Witkoff contended to the Hamas representatives that the hostages were now “more of a liability than an asset for you,” and that it was time to implement the first phase of Trump’s peace for Gaza plan and “bring people home on both sides of the border.”

“President Trump’s message is that you will be treated fairly and that he stands behind all 20 points of his peace plan, and will make sure they are all implemented,” Witkoff reportedly said.

The Hamas leaders then conferred in a separate room with the Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators. Soon after, Egypt’s intel chief Hassan Rashad returned to tell Witkoff and Kushner: “Based on the meeting we just had, we have a deal.”

Trump would soon after announce that the deal on the first phase was done.

US hostage envoy Adam Boehler sparked Israeli anger during earlier talks when he met directly with Hamas officials.