Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, revealed in an interview on Sunday that he felt “duped” by Hamas earlier this month. He initially believed that the terror group had accepted his proposal to extend the ceasefire in Gaza, but it soon became clear that they had backed away from the agreement.
“I thought we had an acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that’s just me getting duped. I thought we were there, and evidently, we weren’t,” Witkoff told Fox News, discussing his visit to Doha on March 12 where he had presented his ceasefire extension plan.
The proposal, which was designed to extend the ceasefire until April 19, would have involved Hamas releasing five living hostages in exchange for a larger number of Palestinian security prisoners. According to Israel, they had agreed to the proposal, but they would have freed 11 living hostages instead of five.
Hamas, however, has maintained that it would stick to the original terms of the agreement, which was supposed to enter its second phase at the start of March. Despite this, Israel refrained from engaging in negotiations over the specifics of the second phase, as it required Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent cessation of hostilities.
In offering his bridge proposal, Witkoff acknowledged Israel’s reluctance to proceed with phase two of the original deal.
On March 14, Hamas proposed releasing the last living American-Israeli hostage along with the bodies of four other US-Israeli citizens. However, Witkoff dismissed the proposal, deeming it unacceptable. Four days later, Israel resumed military operations in Gaza, bringing an end to the two-month ceasefire.
“This is on Hamas. The United States stands with the State of Israel. That’s a 100% commitment,” Witkoff told Fox News. “We’ve expressed that Hamas had every opportunity to demilitarize, to accept the bridging proposal that would have given us a 40- or 50-day ceasefire where we could have discussed demilitarization and a final truce. There were all kinds of opportunities to do that, and they elected not to.”
“This (war) becomes the alternative, and it is unfortunate,” he added.
Witkoff emphasized that the US would still be open to further talks if Hamas were to reach out. “I certainly hope we get everybody back to the table and get the hostages home,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Witkoff had told Tucker Carlson that negotiations were already taking place after Israel resumed its attacks on Gaza.
When questioned by Fox News about Iran, Witkoff reiterated what he had discussed with Carlson regarding US President Donald Trump’s letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Al Khamenei.
“Our signal to Hamas and to Iran is ‘let’s sit down and see if we can through diplomacy get to the right place.’ If we can, we’re prepared to do that. If we can’t, the alternative is not a great alternative,” Witkoff said, further stressing that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
In a separate interview aired on the same day, US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz reinforced the US’s position on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, insisting that the country’s nuclear program must be fully dismantled.
“Full dismantlement,” Waltz told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” when asked to clarify the Trump administration’s stance. “Iran has to give up its program in a way that the entire world can see.”
“All options are on the table, and it is time for Iran to walk away completely from its desire to have a nuclear weapon,” he added.
Addressing recent US military actions against the Houthis, Waltz confirmed that key members of the Yemen-based rebel group had been killed in US strikes.
“We’ve hit their headquarters, we’ve hit communications nodes, weapons factories, and even some of their over-the-water drone production facilities just in the last couple of days,” Waltz explained.
Waltz also criticized the previous administration for not taking stronger action against the Iran-backed Houthis, who had been threatening key maritime routes through the Red Sea.
“The last time one of our destroyers went through the straits there, it was attacked 23 times. Seventy-five percent of our US-flagged shipping now has to go around the southern coast of Africa, rather than going through the Suez Canal,” Waltz said, emphasizing that maintaining open trade routes is a crucial aspect of US national security.
On March 15, the US conducted airstrikes that officials reported killed senior Houthi leaders. The rebels’ health authorities later claimed that the strikes killed 53 people.
These airstrikes against the Houthis represent the most significant US military action in the region since Trump took office. Trump has stated that he would hold Iran accountable for the Houthis’ actions.
In the aftermath of the strikes, the Houthis resumed attacks on Israel, launching multiple ballistic missiles since the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) restarted operations in Gaza earlier this week.
The Houthis began targeting the Red Sea shipping lanes in November 2023, just a month after Hamas carried out the October 7 attack on Israel, which led to the deaths of around 1,200 people and the capture of 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
While the Houthis have justified their attacks on Israeli-linked vessels as supporting Gaza, they have also targeted ships with no known Israeli connections.
The Houthis, whose slogan includes “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews,” paused their attacks in January 2024 when Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire and hostage agreement.
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