‘There’s going to be some action taken,’ Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters the day after Trump issued what he said was his final ultimatum to Trump.
US negotiates with Hamas for the release of American hostages
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the White House’s authority to negotiate directly with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.
WASHINGTON − ”Shalom Hamas,” President Donald Trump declared in Hebrew in what he said was his final ultimatum to the Palestinian group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Filled with capital-letter threats of “HELL TO PAY LATER, Trump, in a posting on his social media site Truth Social, told Hamas ”you are sick and twisted” before demanding that they release all the remaining Israeli hostages.
The threats – the ”last warning! – was his most direct ultimatum to Hamas in months. And it came hours after Trump met with eight recently released Israeli hostages in the Oval Office Wednesday. It was “a really emotional experience for him,” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, told reporters Thursday.
In a video of the meeting, the former hostages are heard telling Trump they believe he was “sent by God” to save them – and those still being held by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, somewhere in Gaza.
Trump’s reply was unequivocal:
“Well, we said you better let us have those people back. You better let them out. … And something happened,” that led to their release, Trump told the former hostages. “Now we’ve got to get the rest out.”
‘I’m not going to tolerate this type of behavior’
Witkoff, who attended the meeting, said the President was angered by the conditions the former hostages described in captivity, including enduring deprivation and witnessing murders.
“The President listened to it, absorbed it, and said this is unacceptable. I’m not going to tolerate this type of behavior,” Witkoff said.
So what happens now? Witkoff warned that ”there’s going to be some action taken. It could be jointly with the Israelis. It’s unclear right now. But I think Hamas has an opportunity to act reasonably, to do what’s right, and then to walk out” of Gaza and never return.
Hamas, and some Arab countries involved in the negotiations, have other plans to stop the war.
Here are four things that could happen next:
Israel goes scorched earth on Gaza, with Trump’s approval
In Trump’s social media post, he told Hamas that he is ”sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”
The Trump Administration already has approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel, according to the State Department’s website.
Trump also repealed a Biden-era policy that had imposed “baseless and politicized conditions on military assistance to Israel at a time when our close ally was fighting a war of survival on multiple fronts against Iran and terror proxies,” the State Department website says.
That means guardrails preventing the U.S. from sending foreign military assistance to Israel if it commits human rights violations – demanded by critics of the war in Gaza – is no longer an issue.
Or the U.S. could act unilaterally and launch attacks on its own.
Washington negotiates directly with Hamas, cutting out Israel
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Wednesday that the administration had entered into direct talks with Hamas officials, potentially bypassing Israel in its efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages.
She said Israel was consulted but did not say whether that happened before or after talks that she described as part of Trump’s “good faith effort to do what’s right for the American people.”
Israeli media described the Jerusalem government as being “outraged” over the unilateral U.S. action. “This is a very problematic move, to say the least,” a senior Israeli official told Israel’s largest, and conservative pro-government newspaper, Israel Hayom.
“While Israel was aware of the secret channel, officials are deeply unhappy about its existence,” the newspaper reported.
On Thursday, Witkoff confirmed that top U.S. hostage negotiator Adam Boehler has had “conversations” with Hamas representatives in recent days to send the message that that the United States wants to get the hostages home − especially those holding American citizenship.
Witkoff also said the Trump administration believes Hamas “has not been forthright with us.” And he told reporters that Edan Alexander, the 21-year-old man from New Jersey believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, is “injured, and so he’s a top priority for us.”
Handing over Alexander would be an important effort by Hamas, but Trump is focused on the other hostages too, Witkoff said.
“All lives matter to him, and he was focused on all lives,” Witkoff said. “And so we’ll see how they’re going to react. The president has issued a statement about what’s acceptable to him and what’s not and hopefully we’ll see some good conduct next week, and I’ll be able to go in there and have discussions.”
Witkoff said he plans to travel to the Middle East next week, with stops planned in four countries.
Bringing Hamas to the table by choking off aid to Gaza
On Sunday, Israel cut off humanitarian aid entering Gaza, choking off the one remaining entry point for trucks carrying food and other aid to enter.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Hamas immediately release the remaining hostages, even though the next round of negotiations Jerusalem agreed to in the original deal has not begun.
Netanyahu had also expressed outrage over what he called Hamas’ “humiliating” hostage release ceremonies, during which a hostage was asked to kiss his captor and the bodies of two dead Israeli children were openly displayed.
Hamas responded by saying Trump’s threats encourage Netanyahu to “evade” the ceasefire agreement and “tightens the siege and starvation against our people.”
Local authorities said if the flow of aid to Gaza does not open, the current level of supplies will last for just two weeks. Humanitarian organizations said Israel’s block is a violation of international law.
The timeline for the first phase of the deal, which came into effect on Jan. 19, expired on Saturday. It called for a 6-week pause in the fighting and Hamas’ release of 33 hostages, some of them dual-nationals, including Americans, and five Thai nationals, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The next phase would see the remaining 59 hostages – not all of whom are alive – released by Hamas, as Israel withdraws its forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu has proposed extending the deal’s first stage for another 50 days or so to cover the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover. Also to continue negotiations. And Trump’s U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is planning on returning to the Middle East to potentially unveil a new plan for the ceasefire.
But Hamas and Israel remain far apart on wider, more complex issues such as Gaza’s postwar governance and the future of Hamas.
A real estate plan for Gaza. But not for Palestinians − and maybe not for Trump
At a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February, Trump announced an out-of-the-blue proposal for the U.S. to “take over” the Gaza Strip and expel its remaining Palestinians to nearby countries. The U.S. would “own” the enclave, eventually turning it into a “Riviera of the Middle East” while Gazans would relocate to neighboring Middle Eastern countries, like Egypt and Jordan, he said.
“If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed,” Trump said. It sparked outrage across the region, not least because the forced displacement of civilians for reasons related to an armed conflict is a war crime.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Witkoff said, that some of the recent negotiations envisioned Gazans returning to their homes in five years.
But that, Witkoff said, is “a delusion. And we need to level set the facts so that people can make proper decisions based on the realities,” including the possibility that clearing and rebuilding the war-ravaged strip could take 15 or more years.
Arab leaders have for the past several weeks been formulating their own response. In early March, they endorsed a plan to rebuild Gaza under a future Palestinian administration led by the Palestinian Authority, or PA, a political grouping that governs the West Bank.
Egypt’s government unveiled a vision of this proposal in Cairo on March 5. It featured AI-generated images of housing developments, beach hotels, lush gardens and community centers. It also featured illustrated plans for a commercial harbor, technology hub, and an airport.
There’s a hiccup: Israel has said it doesn’t want to the PA to play any role in governing Gaza. It also remains far from clear how Hamas fits into all of this. Both Israel and U.S. have made it clear the militant group won’t, as far as they are concerned, have a hand in running Gaza.
On Thursday, Trump himself described Gaza as a “mess” with potentially big potential.
“I think that Gaza is a mess, and I think that Gaza could be good,” Trump told reporters. “I think it’s got to be run properly. But right now, Gaza is an absolute mess, and it has been for many, many years and decades.”
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