US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff revealed in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday that the CIA was telling him Hamas didn’t want to agree to the Gaza ceasefire deal in the days leading up to the group accepting the US proposal.
Witkoff, who was interviewed alongside President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said the Arab countries mediating the negotiations were telling him Hamas would respond positively, while the CIA was saying the opposite.
“[W]e were getting word from the mediators that they were gonna come out positive, but with a couple of conditions and different things that they wanted to see modified in any final agreement. But the vibe we were getting was quite positive,” Witkoff said.
“And we were hearing that Hamas was positive on the deal, and yet I was reading intelligence reports every day and getting briefings from the CIA three times a day. And those intelligence briefings were suggesting that Hamas was going to say no,” he added.
Witkoff said that despite the US intelligence reports, he and Kushner thought the talks were going in a positive direction. “We really felt that this was going in a positive way, and sure enough Hamas came out and said– you know, ‘We accept the president’s plan.’ And that allowed us to get into the next gear,” he said.
While there are many uncertainties about the prospects for a long-term deal and not all the details have been worked out, Kushner said that Hamas was clear that they “were on board with releasing the hostages, they wanted to end the war.”
Hamas’s long-standing position was that it was willing to release all remaining Israeli captives in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire. The group made a significant concession by agreeing to release the hostages without a full withdrawal, as the IDF remains in control of more than 50% of Gaza’s territory and has continued to kill Palestinians despite the ceasefire.
Witkoff and Kushner are currently in Israel to discuss the implementation of the ceasefire deal, and Vice President JD Vance will join them to speak with Israeli officials on Tuesday.
