US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has told Arab mediators that the US will not force Israel to end its genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, according to a report from The Times of Israel.
The report, which cited Arab officials, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was staunchly refusing to end military operations in Gaza, a position he has made clear in public comments as the Israeli military is preparing a major escalation.
“We in the coming days will be entering with all our strength to complete the process… to subdue Hamas,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday. “It could be that Hamas will say ‘pause, we want to release another 10 hostages.’ Ok, release them. We will receive them and after that enter. But there will not be a situation where we stop the war.”
The Times report also cited a source who was present at a meeting Witkoff held with the family members of Israeli captives held in Gaza last week. The source said that Witkoff largely agreed with the position of Arab mediators that Israel’s plan to escalate will not be effective.
At another meeting with hostage families this week, Witkoff was pressed on why the US didn’t force Israel to stop. “We’re not the Israeli government. We don’t disagree. The Israeli government is a sovereign government. They can’t tell us what to do, and we can’t tell them what to do,” Witkoff said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Haaretz.
Israel’s military operations in Gaza are entirely reliant on US military aid, meaning the US has the ability to pressure Netanyahu to end the slaughter and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, which has been under a total Israeli blockade since March 2.
According to the Times report, Witkoff is now proposing a deal for a weeks-long ceasefire that would release a few captives. Hamas’s position is that it’s willing to free all the hostages at once in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.
Witkoff has insisted that during the weeklong truce, the US would ensure Israel entered talks on a lasting deal, but Hamas is unlikely to agree to an agreement without an upfront commitment to a permanent truce. Israel was supposed to enter talks on a permanent ceasefire under the deal that was signed in January, but it refused to do so.
