Witkoff: ‘Israel not willing to end the war,’ not aligned with US policy

The US “wants to return the hostages, but Israel is not ready to end the war,” Witkoff said.

By World Israel News Staff

With the breaking news on Sunday night of Hamas’s pending release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, coupled with the Trump administration’s official opposition to the IDF’s planned ground operation in Gaza, many are deeply concerned about a rift in the US-Israel relationship, notwithstanding Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s insistence that it is as strong as ever.

The US “wants to return the hostages, but Israel is not ready to end the war,” US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said during a meeting with hostage families, according to a Sunday night report by Israel’s Channel 12.

“Israel is prolonging it, despite the fact that we don’t see where else we can go,” Witkoff continued.

“An agreement must be reached. There is currently an opportunity window that we hope Israel and all the mediators will take advantage of. We are putting pressure on all the mediators and doing everything we can to bring the hostages home,” he said.

Furthermore, the Trump administration has been talking directly to Hamas regarding ending the war in Gaza and bringing in more humanitarian aid, a senior Palestinian official told Reuters.

According to the Channel 12 report, however, unnamed senior Israeli officials insisted that “if there are no agreements by the end of [President Donald] Trump’s visit to the Middle East,” referring to the president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates this week, “Israel will launch a ground operation, and it will take several weeks until the next ‘exit point’. We won’t agree to quickly halt, once we have begun the intensified operation.

“Hamas will not determine the timeline,” they declared.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied that there are rifts between him and Trump. “There are no differences between us and the Americans,” he said.