Hostage deal will ‘absolutely’ continue to 2nd phase, US envoy Witkoff affirms; Israel sends team to Cairo talks

After Israel had sent mixed signals regarding its intention to continue the hostage deal into its second phase, White House Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, declared on Sunday that talks were already underway. He also affirmed that phase 2 would begin despite the difficult negotiations.

Following Witkoff’s comments, as well as an earlier phone call between the two, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that an Israeli negotiating team led by Hostage Coordinator Gal Hirsch would travel to Cairo on Monday.

The team was instructed to discuss “the continued implementation of the first stage of the deal. Following tomorrow's Security Cabinet discussion, the team will receive instructions for the continuation of the negotiations regarding the second stage,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.

The announcement of a cabinet discussion follows criticism leveled against Netanyahu for leaked comments from last week’s cabinet meeting.

Channel 13 News quoted the prime minister as saying there was “no point” discussing a possible second phase while the fate of the whole deal was hanging in the balance.

However, after Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday, both parties seem to be committed to continuing the ceasefire for the moment.

During the first phase, Hamas is scheduled to release 33 hostages in exchange for almost 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, a partial Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and a significant increase in humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The second phase would see a total Israeli withdrawal and the declared end of the war, ostensibly without Israel having reached its goals of destroying Hamas’ governmental and military capabilities.

Speaking about these issues on Fox News, Witkoff explained that the second phase “contemplates an end to the war, 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,” he said, adding, “But phase 2 is absolutely going to begin.”

In recent days, several Arab leaders publicly called on Hamas to relinquish power in Gaza in order to facilitate the reconstruction of the devastated region and prevent the war from resuming.

According to i24 News, Egyptian media reported that Cairo is pushing hard for Hamas to agree to relinquish power to a temporary committee that would oversee reconstruction.

Witkoff added that he had engaged in “very productive and constructive” talks with Netanyahu, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief, Hassan Rashad.

They 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 at a location to be determined,” Witkoff said.

The second phase, he acknowledged, “is a little bit more intricate and complicated in terms of how we bring the two sides together on this.”

On Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated that “Israel is determined to achieve all the war objectives,” during a joint statement with U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio, who arrived in Israel on Saturday.

“We will eliminate Hamas's military capability and its political rule in Gaza, we will bring all our hostages home and we will ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel. The unequivocal support of the United States on Gaza will help us achieve these objectives faster and set us on a path for a different future,” Netanyahu affirmed.