CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday night aired the full interview with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s envoys who led the diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
“The biggest message that we've tried to convey to the Israeli leadership now is that, now that the war is over. If you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better,” said Kushner.
On Hamas’s efforts to reestablish power in Gaza, Kushner said, “Hamas right now is doing exactly what you would expect a terrorist organization to do, which is to try to reconstitute and take back their positions.”
He continued, “The success or failure of this will be if Israel and this international mechanism is able to create a viable alternative. If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future.”
Asked about Trump’s comments that "Hamas must disarm, or we will disarm them, perhaps violently" and whether that meant American troops going into the Strip, Kushner stated, “That's not the intent. [Trump’s] statement is that he wants to see this done, and he's fully committed to seeing it done. And-- and he's gonna continue to work hard to make sure that it is completed.”
Pressed by interviewer Lesley Stahl on who would disarm Hamas if not US troops, Kushner replied, “The agreement is that an International Stabilization Force will build a local Palestinian police force, and there will be an agreement reached between them on how to create a secure and viable Gaza. And by the way, none of the reconstruction money is gonna be going in until you have terror-free zones, because nobody wants to invest this money into a place where it's just gonna get destroyed again by terrorism.”
Stahl asked whether Hamas is acting in good faith and seriously looking for the bodies of deceased hostages. Kushner said, “As far as we've seen from what's being conveyed to us from the mediators, they are so far. That could break down at any minute, but right now-- we have seen them looking to honor their agreement.”
Witkoff recalled the meeting in Egypt in which Hamas negotiators were present, including Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, who was targeted in the Israeli strike in Doha. While al-Hayya was not present during the strike, his son was killed.
“We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son. He mentioned it. And I told him that I had lost a son, and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children,” said Witkoff.
Kushner added, “What I saw at that moment was very interesting. You had-- we go into a room and you have the Qataris, the Turks, and the Egyptians. And then we meet the four representatives of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. And I'm looking at these guys and I'm thinking these are hardened guys who have been through two years of war. They've obviously, you know-- they-- they green-lit an assault that raped and murdered and did some of the most barbaric things. They've been holding hostages while Gaza's been, you know, bombed. And they've withstood all the suffering. But when Steve and him spoke about their sons, it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other.”
Witkoff explained, “The Qataris were the interlocutors directly talking to Hamas. But then we were on the phone with the Qataris, the Egyptians, and the Turks. And the notion was to convince everybody that those 20 Israeli hostages who were alive, were no longer assets for Hamas. They were a liability.”
“At the end of the day, it goes back to the issues were pretty simple,” added Kushner. “We wanted the hostages to come out. We wanted a real ceasefire that both sides would respect. We needed a way to bring humanitarian aid into the people. And then we had to write all these complex words to deal with the 50 years of stupid word games that everyone in that region is so used to playing. Both sides wanted the objective. And we just needed to find a way to help everyone get there.”
Ultimately, the two stressed that President Trump stands behind this deal and added, “We will not allow the terms of this deal for any party to be violated. And both sides will be treated fairly.”
A preview of the interview was published on Saturday night. In that clip, the two discussed Washington’s surprise by the Israeli strike in Qatar.
"I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed," said Witkoff.
Kushner described in the interview how President Trump reacted after the strike. "I think he felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing, and that it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests," he said.
In the full interview, the two commented on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology to the Qataris, with Witkoff rejecting Stahl’s description of the apology being forced by Trump on the Prime Minister.
“I wouldn't call it forced.I would say that apology was pivotal. It was the linchpin that got us to the next place. It was really, really important that it happened. And I think we spent-- with the president, at his direction, we spent a lot of time discussing it with [Minister Ron] Dermer, discussing it with-- Prime Minister Netanyahu. And then the president weighed in,” explained Witkoff.
Added Kushner, “President Trump had a great line-- at his speech in the Knesset where he said, ‘Bibi's very tough, but that's what makes him great.’ And ultimately, Prime Minister Netanyahu wasn't gonna do anything, or say anything, or agree to anything that he didn't feel comfortable with. But he knew what needed to be done at that moment to make peace. And I give him a lot of credit for meeting the moment and doing what needed to be done in order to get this deal done.”
“The goal of the phone call was to help things move forward,” continued Kushner. “And now there's a trilateral mechanism between the countries which didn't happen before. So this is the first time there's a formal mechanism now between Israel and Qatar. And I believe over time Israel and Qatar could actually turn out to be incredible allies in the region to advance things forward.”
Witkoff stressed, “The apology needed to happen. It just did. We were not moving forward without that apology. And the president said to him, ‘People apologize.’ - I remember him saying, ‘I apologize sometimes.’"