President Donald J. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters on Tuesday that the Hamas deal to release Israeli hostages was problematic.
“Part of the problem is that it wasn’t such a wonderful agreement that was first signed – that was not dictated by the Trump administration. We had nothing to do with it,” Witkoff said.
“We’re focused on making sure Phase 1 completes exactly as it should: that all the hostages who are part of that deal come home as they should, including bodies,” Witkoff added and noted that when he plans to remedy the Biden administration’s errors when he meets with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani in Florida Thursday.
“So now we’re working within that rubric, and we’re figuring things out. We were able to get to the right place in Phase 1. We’re hopeful we’ll get to the right place in Phase 2. And what me and the National Security Advisor are identifying — which by the way President Trump identified — is that phase 3 can’t go the way that agreement talks about, which is a five-year program.”
The problem with Phase 2, and consequently Phase 3 is that, unlike Phase 1, they are not accompanied by any substantial details whatsoever. They’re a little like wedding vows: more wishful thinking than reality. This is why Hamas and Israel maintain completely different versions of what Phase 2 would bring.
Phase 2 involves the end of the war, essentially marking the start of “the day after” in the Gaza Strip. Consequently, the list of demands Hamas previously put forward has consistently crossed all of Israel’s red lines.
Hamas’s main demand for agreeing to the release of 65 Israeli and additional foreign hostages—its last bargaining chip—is the complete end of the war. This should involve a “sustainable peace” with no conditions, where Israel fully withdraws from the Gaza Strip and allows billions in aid from other countries for its reconstruction.
I would venture to say that fewer than 20% of Knesset MKs support such a generous gift to the murderers and rapists of October 7.
In addition, Hamas is likely to demand the release of more prisoners for each soldier not included in Phase 1, referring to the young Israeli men as “soldiers.” Seeking to present a victory at the conclusion of its deadly surprise attack on October 7, which also led to the catastrophic demolition of the Strip, Hamas will probably push for the release of more high-profile prisoners in Phase 2, such as Marwan Barghouti from Fatah and Hassan Salameh, a senior member of Hamas’s military wing, both serving multiple life sentences.
WHAT IS PHASE 2?
Witkoff’s notion of Phase 2 has nothing to do with reviving the defeated Hamas. He is all about emptying Gaza of its Arabs.
“What we’re trying to do is be transparent to these people. If you go to Gaza today – I was there. I witnessed it – you see people going there, picking up a tent, and literally, in some circumstances, turning right around again because there is nothing left there,” he explained.
“This is a complicated deal. And there’s a lot to be considered here. And if you talk to a person like {NSA] Mike Waltz, or a person like Donald Trump, what they’re going to tell you is we need to level-set the facts. Really understand the conditions right now in Gaza, and I’m giving you a really granular view of the reality that exists there today,” Witkoff continued.
He believes Trump is “talking about making it habitable. This is a long-range plan. They’ve dug tunnels that have basically degraded the stone that would form foundations. “It’s years on top of years. The disposal effort, we estimate three to five years just to dispose of all the things before you can look down beneath the surface of the soil and get a master plan done. It is unfair to have explained to Palestinians that they might be back in five years. That’s just preposterous.”
Witkoff described the challenge: “In any city in the United States, if you had damage that was a tenth of what I saw in Gaza, nobody’d be allowed to go back to their homes. That’s how dangerous it is. 30,000 unexploded munitions, buildings that could tip over at any moment. There are no utilities there whatsoever. No working water, electricity, gas, nothing. God knows what kind of disease might be festering there.”
