Witkoff: Trump wants 2nd phase if it will see hostages released and lives saved

Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff tells Channel 12 news that the US president “wants to see the second phase if it results in hostages being released and lives being saved, and it can lead to peace.”

“That’s what his policy program is about,” he adds. “It’s about peace through strength.”

Witkoff says that “Hamas had threatened earlier in the week not to release any hostages, and guess what? They backed up and they released. That’s a good thing that happened because the president made that threat.”

The US envoy says that “we’re grateful for the fact that three people came out alive yesterday. Hopefully hostage release[s] will continue this weekend.”

Witkoff says that he has “talked to the Israelis, the Qataris, and the Egyptians this morning, about setting forth a schedule pursuant to which we would — in a very substantive way — begin second phase talks. Everybody is receptive to that, so hopefully that’s what’s going to be happening this week.”

Earlier today, in an interview with Fox News, Witkoff publicly confirms for the first time that during his recent visit to Israel, he watched the “horrific” footage that Israel has compiled from Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. “I’ve got some context that was important for me to have.”

Asked about Trump’s controversial plan to takeover Gaza, Wiktoff says people get attacked for coming up with “new and unique proposals.”

“But it also encouraged a lot of conversation. Now you have the Egyptians saying we have a plan, the Jordanians are saying we have a plan, and people are actually engaging in really important cogent discussions about what would happen there,” he says.

Egypt and Jordan have yet to introduce any such plan, but Cairo has said it is working on one for the post-war management of Gaza that will allow Palestinians to remain in Gaza.

“The president’s position is, why are we going to necessarily default to… the same policy prescription that has been implemented for the last four or five decades and hasn’t worked?” Witkoff says in the Fox News interview. “Maybe we need to explore new policy prescriptions that ultimately [provide] a better life for Gazans and Palestinians.”

Trump’s goal is to address where Gaza’s population of roughly two million can be relocated, Witkoff says: “The obvious answers are, in some respects, Egypt, in some respects, Jordan, but in some respects, other countries who have called us up and voluntarily said, ‘We want to participate in this humanitarian effort.’ That is to be commended.”

Witkoff does not elaborate on which countries have offered to participate in the relocation of Gazans.

Asked about efforts to combat the threat of Tehran, he says: “All roads lead to Iran in this Middle Eastern conflict [but that] the largest issue is the nuclear.”

“The president has said they will not get a bomb,” Witkoff says, adding that such a result would lead to regional arms race that would devastate the region. “The president has also said this can be solved diplomatically. If Iran shows an interest in solving it diplomatically, the American government remains open to those discussions.”