US envoy Boehler’s Hamas meetings were a ‘one-off’ that ‘hasn’t borne fruit,’ Rubio says
Israeli negotiators head to Doha to discuss extending truce in return for further hostage releases; families urge return of all captives in a single phase
US President Donald Trump’s hostage envoy Adam Boehler’s direct dealings with Hamas officials on the release of hostages in Gaza were a “one-off situation” that as of now “hasn’t borne fruit,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.
The State Department head told reporters that the “primary vehicle for negotiations” would be Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, set to meet in Doha with an Israeli delegation dispatched to the Gulf earlier Monday to resume hostage talks.
“That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so. He did so,” Rubio told reporters en route to Saudi Arabia.
“As of now, it hasn’t borne fruit. Doesn’t mean he was wrong to try,” Rubio added.
According to a report in the Axios new site, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told a security cabinet meeting on Sunday that Boehler’s controversial direct talks with Hamas did not represent the White House position.
An unnamed Israeli official told the news site that Dermer also said the Trump administration had promised Israel that “it won’t happen again,” and that US envoy Steve Witkoff will remain the lead negotiator on the issue of Israeli hostages.
The official said Witkoff promised Israel he would not hold direct talks with Hamas unless the terror group makes “tangible concessions,” according to the news site.
At the same time, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was quoted by Axios as saying that Trump “fully backs and supports” Boehler’s actions.
As Israeli negotiators set out for Qatar, Hamas issued a statement condemning what it deemed a non-commitment by Israel to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs the length of Gaza’s border with Egypt. The text of the ceasefire deal required Israel to begin withdrawing from the corridor on day 42 and complete the pullout by day 50 — which was Monday. Israeli troops currently remain in the buffer zone.
The new round of talks will focus on a US-backed outline that would reportedly see Hamas release 10 living hostages, including American-Israeli Edan Alexander, in exchange for a further 60 days of ceasefire.
On Monday morning, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum publicly exhorted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take talks further by giving negotiators a “full mandate” to reach an agreement for the immediate release of all 59 hostages — living and dead — in a single phase.
“An agreement including the return of all hostages is possible and is the duty of the Israeli government to its citizens that remain in Hamas tunnels,” the forum said in a statement, adding that “foot-dragging in negotiations will cost the lives of additional hostages.”
Of the hostages remaining in Gaza, 24 are presumed to be alive, while 35 have been confirmed dead by Israeli officials, based on evidence and intelligence.
A separate group of families demanded the government immediately cancel its decision halting the supply of electricity to Gaza, warning that the move would endanger hostages’ lives.
“If this poor and dangerous decision is not overturned within 24 hours, we will petition the High Court of Justice,” said the families in a letter addressed to Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Energy Minister Eli Cohen.
Cohen’s decision to cut electricity to the Strip will chiefly affect one desalination plant near Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, which serves more than 600,000 residents of the enclave.
Monday morning saw several relatives of hostages urge the government to secure the release of their loved ones at fiery Knesset committee testimonies, ahead of negotiators’ departure.
The latest round of negotiations come after it was revealed that the US had engaged in separate, direct talks with Hamas focused on freeing the American hostages, led by Trump hostage envoy Boehler.
Boehler claimed in interviews with Israeli outlets on Sunday that the ultimate goal of the talks was the release of all hostages.
“How is it that I wake up in the morning and see that Adam Boehler is trying to bring my brother back? Who even is he?” Yotam Cohen, brother of Hamas hostage Nimrod Cohen, exclaimed at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
By all accounts, Israel was caught by surprise by Boehler’s actions, and reacted angrily to them behind the scenes.
“You, the government, put [Nimrod] there,” Cohen said, telling lawmakers they should be ready to “crawl on all fours in the sand of Gaza” in order to bring his brother back.
In an interview with Channel 12, Alon Nimrodi, father of captive soldier Tamir Nimrodi, accused Israel’s political establishment of dragging its feet, stalling for weeks on negotiations to continue the current hostage-ceasefire deal.
Talks “should have started on the 16th [day of the truce], and not on the 57th,” said Nimrodi, citing the terms of the ceasefire agreements. “On the 16th day they should have been doing what they are doing today. All these delays are harming the families and hostages. We can no longer bear this endless rigamarole.”
Kobi Ohel, father of hostage Alon Ohel, told politicians at a Health Committee meeting that released hostages who met his son in captivity had said they couldn’t even recognize him in a photo taken before his kidnapping.
“We understood why Eli [Sharabi] didn’t recognize Alon’s photo. Do you know why? Because Alon looks they way Eli looks,” he lamented, referring to the freed hostage’s emaciated state upon his release, after having lost some 30 kg (66 pounds) in captivity.
In a bid to raise attention to the plight of the hostages held in Gaza, families at the Knesset distributed packages to lawmakers marking the upcoming festival of Purim.
While most mishloach manot packages traditionally exchanged during the Jewish holiday are filled with sweets, wine and pastries, these gift baskets contained a single pieace of pita bread, highlighting the dire conditions the hostages are being held in. Many returned hostages have recounted often subsisting on a piece of dry pita a day.
The parcels, tied with a yellow ribbon, also came with magnets highlighting a comment made by released hostage Sharabi in a February interview with Channel 12’s Uvda program.
“People should really contemplate when they open the fridge at home… [The ability] to open the fridge is everything,” the magnet read.
