Witkoff says Trump administration opposes additional partial hostage release deals

US special envoy Steve Witkoff says the Trump administration’s official position is to oppose additional partial Gaza hostage deals, lining up behind Israel which has avoided responding to a proposal accepted by Hamas for a phased release of the remaining hostages.

Trump himself indicated that this was his administration’s stance when he posted on Truth Social hours after Hamas accepted the Arab mediators’ latest proposal on August 18 that the remaining hostages would only be freed after the terror group has been completely destroyed.

However, the White House said the next day that it was still reviewing the latest phased hostage deal proposal, which is nearly identical to the one that Witkoff crafted several months ago.

Despite Hamas’s acceptance of that proposal, Witkoff says in a Fox News interview that Hamas is fully responsible for the lack of a deal to date, reiterating that the terrorist organization”slow played that process” last month when it added new conditions, which led the US and Israel to recall their negotiating teams.

While Israel has since declared that it was no longer interested in phased deals, the Arab mediators worked to bring Hamas down from its new demands by accepting their latest proposal, hoping that Jerusalem would reconsider.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held his ground, while advancing plans for the IDF to take over Gaza City, an operation that he argues will dismantle Hamas’s last remaining stronghold in the Strip. His critics argue that he characterized Israel’s 2024 conquering of Rafah in the same manner and that a new operation will only further entrench the Hamas insurgency, while hostage families fear the Gaza City offensive will put their loved ones at risk.

“It is Hamas now who’s saying we accept that deal, and I think in large part they’re saying that and changing their mind because the Israelis are putting some very intense pressure on them,” Witkoff tells Fox News, without saying whether Israel should do the same.

Fox’s Brett Baier notes that Israeli officials have said they no longer accept a partial deal, and he asks if the US feels the same way.

“That’s the official position, and that’s President Trump’s official position. I think that he has said to himself, ‘You don’t need to keep those hostages,'” Witkoff says.

Hamas has refused to release the remaining hostages unless Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw from Gaza, demands that Netanyahu has refused, arguing that doing so would leave Hamas in power.