The push to secure an Israel-Hamas cease-fire has once again picked up steam as Qatar has returned to the negotiating table, and President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy has begun his diplomatic orientation by meeting with top players in the region in the pursuit of freeing the 100 hostages still in Gaza.
A source familiar with the ongoing talks confirmed to Fox News Digital that Steve Witkoff, tapped by Trump to be his diplomatic envoy in the turbulent region, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in late November.
Though the talks between Witkoff and the Middle Eastern leaders appear to be an attempt to kickstart stalled negotiations between Israel and the terrorist organization, any progress following his meetings remains unclear.
Steve Witkoff, founder and chief executive officer of Witkoff Group LLC, speaks during a campaign event with former President Donald Trump, not pictured, at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“Both agreed a Gaza cease-fire is needed before [the] Trump inauguration so that once the Trump administration takes office it can move onto other issues, like stabilizing the region after a year filled with war and instability,” a source briefed on the talks said.
Despite more than a yearlong attempt to broker a cease-fire and secure the release of 100 hostages – seven of whom are American and only three of whom are still believed to be alive after 425 days in captivity – a U.S. official said Witkoff’s meetings were a move to get him up to speed rather than taking any concrete steps in advancing the negotiations, reported Reuters on Thursday.
Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Trump transition team or the White House for any details on the ongoing talks, though according to the Reuters report, while the White House has kept the Trump transition team updated, they have not worked together directly in the cease-fire negotiations.
Witkoff, a real estate agent with no prior diplomatic experience and who has business ties to Qatar and other nations in the region, traveled to Israel on Nov. 23, when he met with Netanyahu.
The following day, the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, traveled to Vienna to meet with the Qatari prime minister – both of whom have played critical roles in the negotiation talks – where the duo discussed “what was needed to get a deal.”
The meetings between U.S. and Israeli officials with Sheikh Mohammed suggest that Qatar has fully resumed its top position at the negotiating table to broker a deal between Jerusalem and Hamas after Doha ceased its involvement last month, citing frustration that neither party were engaging in “good faith” negotiations.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani speak during a meeting at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Hamas was also barred from Qatar after its officials deemed the negotiations had devolved into a debate about optics rather than actual peace attempts.
Though senior Hamas leaders involved in the negotiations had left Doha, according to reports in mid-November, the office remained open at the request of the U.S. and Israel, Qatar’s prime minister said this week during an interview with Sky News.
“Hamas’ presence in Doha happened with full transparency and coordination, at the request of the U.S. and Israel,” Sheikh Mohammed said in answer to a question about criticism the country has faced in allowing a Hamas office to operate out of its capital.
The prime minister explained that keeping all lines of communication open through Doha not only secured hostage exchanges in 2023 followed by aid delivery to hostages in Gaza in January 2024 but remains a crucial “channel of negotiation” regarding the future release of the hostages, which he argued will not be achieved through “military power.”
Demonstrators and relatives of hostages taken by Hamas during the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel protest on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Trump said on Monday there will be “hell to pay” if the hostages are not released before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, though he has not detailed what action he will take.
Sheikh Mohammed told the British news outlet that it will take “maximum pressure” on all parties to achieve a cease-fire but said Qatar is working with all sides to try and resolve the crisis in Gaza before Trump takes office.
