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Steve Witkoff, President-elect Donald Trump's designated Middle East special envoy, said he has been in Qatar "working in tandem" with Biden administration negotiators on a last-ditch effort to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
Trump, who brought Witkoff to the lectern during a news conference at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence, called his envoy a "great negotiator" and "what we needed over there."
Witkoff's presence in Doha, the Qatari capital where negotiations are taking place, comes as Trump's picks for foreign policy roles and the president-elect himself have skirted the line separating the outgoing and incoming administrations. Since his election, Trump has hosted several foreign government leaders at his Mar-a-Lago estate, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni over the weekend, and has roiled other bilateral relationships with insults and threats of tariffs or outright conquest.
In remarks to reporters after Trump's news conference, Witkoff emphasized that "the Biden administration is the tip of the spear" in the negotiations and is briefing him daily. President Joe Biden, he said, has "got a solid team, and I appreciated that they're allowing us to be collaborative." Witkoff said he will return to Doha on Wednesday.
A Biden administration official said that Brett McGurk, the National Security Council official who is leading the Biden team's negotiations, talks "regularly" with Witkoff "and the discussions are constructive."
"We share the common aim to get the hostages out," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.
U.S. officials emphasized that Witkoff, a real estate mogul and longtime friend of the president-elect, is not directly participating in the Israel-Hamas negotiations, mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, but they said he has been helpful in reinforcing the overall U.S. message.
Witkoff credited Trump with what he said was "progress" in talks that, despite numerous ups and downs, have been unsuccessful for more than a year in freeing around 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, including at least 30 believed dead but whose bodies have not been recovered. About 250 mostly Israeli hostages were captured by Hamas militants in the October 2023 raid of southern Israel. Others were released earlier, or their bodies recovered.
"I don't want to comment on what the [negotiation] strategy was before the election," Witkoff said.
"This is no disrespect to President Biden," he said. But "it's the president," Witkoff said, referring to Trump, "his reputation, the things that he has said that are driving this negotiation ... so hopefully it'll all work out and we'll save some lives."
At the news conference, Trump said he didn't want to "hurt" ongoing negotiations but repeated a threat, without offering further details. "If the deal isn't done before I take office, which is now going to be two weeks, all hell will break out in the Middle East. And it will not be good for Hamas," Trump said.
Witkoff confirmed that the first phase of the three-phase deal in the Doha talks calls for the release of 34 hostages in stages over a 42-day ceasefire. "That is beyond when the president will be inaugurated," he said, again referring to Trump. "He will be in office when that 42-day ceasefire is over. That's what Hamas cares about, how we move to phase two. That's what the Israelis care about, how President Trump will be at the end of that ceasefire. And so, in my opinion, he is driving this negotiation."
The proposed three phases were publicly announced by Biden in May, although there have been some changes during subsequent negotiations. Israel agreed to withdraw some troops from several populated areas inside Gaza during the first phase, but negotiations were stalled for months over Hamas's insistence, and Israel's refusal, to commit to withdrawing all its forces and declaring a permanent end to the war in the second phase, when all remaining hostages are to be released.
A third phase is designed to establish non-Hamas governance in Gaza and begin substantial reconstruction of the enclave.
While Hamas has reportedly now agreed not to insist on Israel's commitment to stop the war entirely during the second phase, the extent of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza remains unclear. The Israel Defense Forces has constructed what appear to be permanent installations in central Gaza and cleared a wide buffer area on the Gaza side of the border with Israel.
The Biden administration has long insisted that all of Gaza's territory must remain intact. Hamas, and the United States, have also said that Gaza residents from the northern part of the enclave, most of whom have fled to the south from ongoing Israeli bombardment, must be allowed to return home.
Israel, as it did during the first negotiated hostage release in late 2023, has agreed to exchange a number of Palestinian prisoners for hostages, but it is unclear whether agreement has been reached on how many prisoners, and which ones, will be let go.
Two U.S. citizens are among the first 34 hostages who could be released in the first phase of the deal, according to a Hamas official, who spoke to The Washington Post on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate negotiations. Israeli Americans Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, and Keith Siegel, 65, are on a list of 34 hostages provided by Hamas to various news outlets. One other U.S. hostage is believed to still be alive, and the bodies of four others are still being held in Gaza.
The Hamas official told The Post that the inclusion of Dekel-Chen in particular was a gesture of goodwill toward the United States. "Intensive negotiations are ongoing in Cairo and Doha, with current discussions focusing on the technical stages of the agreement," the official said.
In a statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the 34 names had originally been put forward by Israeli negotiators in July. "As yet, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list," the statement said.
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