There will ‘absolutely’ be stage two of ceasefire
US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff says US president ‘wants to see’ next phase happen of ceasefire as Israeli delegation set to depart for Cairo talks.
(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that, while difficulties remain in negotiations for the continuation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the second stage of the hostage deal is “absolutely going to begin,” and that the president “wants to see” it happen.
Speaking to Fox News, Witkoff said that he held “very productive and constructive” phone calls Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, where the leaders discussed “the timing of phase two, the positions of the parties so that we can understand where we stand, and we will continue the talks later this week,” in either Cairo or Doha.
He added that phase two “is a little bit more intricate and complicated in terms of how we bring the two sides together on this,” but clarified that talks on phase two will continue in a “location to be determined.”
The second phase contemplates an end to the war, he said, “but it also contemplates Hamas not being involved in the government and being gone from Gaza. So, we’ve got to square those two things.”
The deal itself does not stipulate that Hamas will no longer be in power at the end of phase two, but both the Biden and Trump administrations said they would not accept such a result, as has Israel.
“But phase two is absolutely going to begin,” Witkoff added.
Witkoff also said in the live TV interview that phase two will include the release of 19 IDF soldiers. “We believe all of them are alive,” he added. Those include Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen still held by Hamas.
Israel does not believe there are 19 living IDF soldiers held captive in Gaza. Currently, there are fewer than 10 active duty IDF soldiers believed to be held alive in the Strip, as well as a number of bodies of soldiers. Hamas often refers to any adult Israeli men as IDF soldiers, and it was not clear if Witkoff was echoing that categorization.
There are 59 hostages being held who are not included in the first stage of the ceasefire — 35 of whom Israel has declared dead.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid later tweeted that Witkoff told him instead that “the vast majority of the 19 young men Hamas is holding hostage and that are part of phase 2 of the Gaza deal are civilians who were kidnapped from their homes,” adding that actually “only three or four of them are soldiers.”
In reality, the majority of the young living men remaining in Hamas captivity were kidnapped from the Nova music festival.
Later on Sunday, Witkoff told Channel 12 news that Trump “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,” Witkoff added. “It’s about peace through strength.”
Witkoff said that “Hamas had threatened earlier in the week not to release any hostages, and guess what? They backed up and they released,” adding that “we’re grateful for the fact that three people came out alive yesterday. Hopefully, hostage release[s] will continue this weekend.”
Asked about Trump’s controversial plan to take over Gaza, Witkoff said people get attacked for coming up with “new and unique proposals.”
“But it also encouraged a lot of conversation,” he explained. “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.
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.
Trump’s goal is to address where Gaza’s population of roughly two million can be relocated, Witkoff said: “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.”
He did not elaborate on which countries have offered to participate in the relocation of Gazans.
Trump himself said Sunday he’d told Netanyahu, “You do whatever you want,” with regard to the hostage release-ceasefire deal.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump was asked about a Saturday deadline he’d spontaneously imposed last week for Hamas to release all of the hostages, which passed without incident.
Trump, for the first time, explicitly said that he made the threat because Hamas had said it would not be releasing the three hostages that it was slated to release on Saturday, under the terms of the deal. Over the past several days, US officials have argued that it was Trump’s threat that led Hamas to back down from its own threat not to release any hostages.
But the Trump threat would have contradicted the terms of the deal, which only stipulated Hamas release three hostages on Saturday, not all of them.
As for the next steps in the hostage deal, Trump said, “That’ll be up to Israel… in consultation with me.”
Netanyahu: Trump’s Gaza plan is the only one that can work
Speaking at the Conference of Presidents in Jerusalem on Sunday, Netanyahu said his meeting earlier this month in the White House with Trump was “one of the most consequential meetings” between an Israeli prime minister and a US president.
“We are reshaping the Middle East,” he declared.
The IDF has “decimated much of Hamas,” Netanyahu claimed, adding: “We haven’t finished the job yet, but we will. Israel will destroy Hamas as a military force.”
The premier also again endorsed Trump’s Gaza migration plan, which he called a “bold new vision” for Gaza’s future, suggesting that Palestinians should have the option to leave the Strip if they so choose.
“Not forcible eviction, not ethnic cleansing,” he insisted, “but a choice for those who want a different future.”
Calling the plan “right on the dot,” he said it was “the only plan I think can work.”
Netanyahu concluded his address by touting Israel’s strength after 16 months of fighting: “Today, everyone recognizes Israel’s strength. The US-Israel alliance is stronger than ever, and the Jewish people stand more resilient than ever.”
Delegation sent to Cairo for talks, but not on second phase
Also on Sunday, the prime minister instructed a negotiating team to head to Cairo Monday for talks on the continuation of the first phase of the hostage deal with Hamas, his office announced.
The Prime Minister’s Office stressed that the decision was made “in coordination” with Witkoff, who spoke with Netanyahu earlier Sunday, and that negotiations on the second phase of the deal would only begin after Monday’s security cabinet meeting.
According to a Channel 12 report, the delegation is leaving with a “narrow and limited” mandate and was not given authorization to discuss the continuation of the deal into its second and third phases, despite requests from the heads of the security services.
The report added that the Israeli delegation would not include Mossad chief David Barnea or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
Also Sunday evening, Netanyahu denied a Channel 12 report that said he had only authorized the delegation to be sent to Cairo after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with the premier in Jerusalem on Sunday, told him that refusing to send a negotiating team was “not an option.”
“The conversation on the second phase deals with the ‘day after,’” the PMO insisted, “and it will be led by the political echelon.”
After he met with Netanyahu, Rubio also made sure to pressure Hamas to fulfill its end of the deal, calling on “our partners to help impress upon Hamas’s leaders that they are playing with fire.”
When Hamas threatened not to release hostages last Saturday, due to “Israeli violations” of the agreement, Trump responded by saying that the terror group should release “all” the hostages, lest “the gates of hell” be opened on Gaza.
After intense intervention from the mediating countries to solve the crisis, Saturday’s hostage-prisoner exchange took place as planned, with Sagui Dekel-Chen, Sasha Troufanov, and Iair Horn returning to Israel after 498 days of captivity in Gaza.
Seventy of the 251 hostages abducted on October 7, 2023, remain captive in Gaza. Nineteen Israeli hostages have been freed so far under the ceasefire deal that went into effect last month: four female civilians, five female IDF soldiers and 10 male civilians. In addition, five Thai hostages were released outside of the framework of the deal with Israel.
Another 14 Israeli hostages are slated to be released in the initial stage of the ongoing truce deal with Hamas, of whom the terror group has said eight are dead.
The terror group freed 105 civilians during the weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages were rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages were also recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military, as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
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