Steve Witkoff, the US envoy for peace missions under the Trump administration, is reportedly planning to meet soon with Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s chief negotiator and a senior figure in the October 7, 2023 massacre against Israel, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The meeting, confirmed to the newspaper by two individuals familiar with Witkoff’s travel plans, would signal Washington’s continued effort to maintain direct communication with Hamas - despite its designation by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
The timing of the meeting remains uncertain, and sources caution that plans may still change. Neither Witkoff’s office, Hamas officials, nor the White House responded to requests for comment.
According to one of the sources, Witkoff intends to raise the issue of the Gaza ceasefire, which was brokered in October and included an exchange of Israeli hostages for terrorist prisoners held in Israel. The agreement has largely held despite intermittent violence and despite the fact that Hamas has stalled on returning the bodies of murdered hostages.
Witkoff and al-Hayya previously met in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, ahead of the ceasefire signing. That meeting was also attended by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, who played a key role in brokering the deal.
In a televised interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired October 19, Witkoff shared that he had offered personal condolences to al-Hayya over the death of his son, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Hamas compound in Qatar.
“I told him that I had lost a son,” Witkoff said. “And that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children.” Witkoff’s son, Andrew, died of an opioid overdose in 2011.
Witkoff’s engagement with Hamas has drawn criticism from Israeli and American voices who argue that such meetings lend undue legitimacy to the terror group. However, the envoy appears undeterred, according to the New York Times report.
Witkoff, notably, is not the first Trump administration official to meet with Hamas. Adam Boehler, the US envoy for hostage response, held multiple meetings with Hamas officials in Qatar last March.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)