From the Liveblog of
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Witkoff: Trump’s ultimatum came after we didn’t like what we heard from Hamas in direct talks
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff defends the Trump administration’s decision to launch direct talks with Hamas, breaking with longstanding policy not to negotiate with the terror group.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Witkoff says Trump’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler held such conversations in recent days — not weeks — and that doing so is within his purview.
“I commend him for doing that. Adam cares about lives. The hostage families are grateful for it, and so is President Trump,” Wiktoff says.
“It was the responsibility of the special envoy to actually have a conversation and see if anything can be achieved,” Witkoff continues.
“Unfortunately, what we learned is that Hamas told us they were going to be thinking about it a certain way… That’s important information for us to have. And so came the tweet from the president,” Witkoff said, referencing Trump’s post on Truth Social last night that warned Hamas that it would be destroyed if it didn’t immediately release the hostages.
Witkoff says Trump’s message to Hamas was, “Your behavior is unacceptable. You need to clean up your behavior.”
“We want to see these hostages come home. We’re not going to sit here and do nothing and tolerate these kinds of inhumane conditions. They’ve lived in a terrible situation. Who keeps dead bodies? Who does that? Who keeps people chained up downstairs? Who murders in front of other hostages? What has happened here is intolerable, and it’s not going to be tolerated by President Trump.”
“We’re prepared to have dialogue. But if the dialogue doesn’t work, then the alternative is not such a good alternative for Hamas,” Witkoff says.
While a government official told The Times of Israel earlier today that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unhappy about Washington’s direct negotiations with Hamas, Witkoff insists that Israel is supportive of the administration’s efforts and that he is in regular contact with officials in Jerusalem.
