WASHINGTON, D. C. — U. S. President Steve Witkoff’s Middle East envoy said Gaza will be deployed in the coming days as a component of what he called an “inspection team” to monitor the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas last week.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Witkoff said he would stop at two indexed spaces in Gaza, as a component of a close to Israel.
“I’m going to be a component of an inspection team in the Netzarim corridor and also in the Philadelphia corridor,” Witkoff said. “That’s where you have guards outside, making other people stand and other people are unarmed and no one has bad motives. “
The Netzarim hall separates the north and southern Gaza and has been occupied through the Israeli forces since they invaded the Palestinian enclave in last in October 2023. The Philadelphous Hall extends between southern Gaza and Egypt. The IDF took the “operational control” of the domain last May.
The envoy’s first stop in the Middle East, as Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire agreement on Jan. 15. Witkoff, a businessman with no previous diplomatic experience, had in the past joined talks in Qatar that led to the deal.
It will also be Witkoff’s first since Trump took office on Monday. , in an incident captured on video.
“We have to make sure that the implementation goes well, because if it goes well, we will enter Phase Two, and we will eliminate many more living bodies,” Witkoff said, referring to the Israeli captives in Gaza.
“And I think that’s the president’s directive for me and for everyone who works in the U. S. government. “UU. Es about that. “
The ceasefire agreement has 3 s. Only the implementation of the first one has begun.
Over the next six weeks, this phase is meant to see a pause in the fighting; a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, adding the Netzarim corridor; and a building in aid of the enclave.
Fifteen months of war in Gaza have left the enclave leveled and the vast majority of its population displaced. The United Nations has warned about the near drawing in northern Gaza, and its Mavens compare Israel’s war tactics to genocide.
In total, at least 47,107 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed 1,139 people, with more than two hundred captives.
The first of the ceasefire is also intended to see 33 Israeli captives released from Gaza and around 1,000 Palestinians released from Israeli detention. So far away, 3 Israeli captives and 90 Palestinian prisoners have been released.
The timing and third stages have been agreed in principle, however, negotiations on the main points remain ongoing. The phase is expected to see the remaining Israeli captives released in exchange for the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.
This purpose would be at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s past promises to maintain Gaza’s security indefinitely after the war.
The main points of the third phase are less clear, but they would come with plans for multi-year reconstruction in Gaza and the return of the bodies of the captives.
The existing agreement comes with any agreement on who will govern Gaza after the war.
Witkoff spoke to Fox News a day after Trump told reporters he is “not confident” the ceasefire agreement will take place.
“This is not our war. It is their war. But I’m not sure,” Trump told reporters in a photo of the White House. “I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a big demolition site. “
The US president, whose first term spanned from 2017 to 2021, had demanded a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel before his inauguration day, vowing “hell to pay” if it was not reached.
It is not without clarity how Trump would react if Israel were to break the deal.
Trump has been more available to Israeli interests than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
However, Biden’s administration has promised “unwavering” for Israel and has refused to take advantage of the billions of dollars in the military that the United States offers Israel in exchange for a ceasefire.
Both Trump and Biden claimed credit for achieving this month’s ceasefire agreement.
As his moment of moment begins, Trump is expected to expand us for Israel. His administration, for example, is full of pro-Israel hawks, adding ER of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
It has already lifted off Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settler teams accused of violence opposed to Palestinians.
Still, Trump took it upon himself to be the global peacemaker and end conflicts as a component of his “America First” Agfinisha.
Speaking Wednesday, Witkoff credited Trump’s “peace to strength” technique as the driving force behind the ceasefire, while the incoming administration’s acknowledgment did not refer to the “math” that formed the terms of the agreement.
Witkoff also said he hoped to revive Israeli Arab normalization efforts, which Trump led his first term, so that Israel would become less diplomatically isolated.
The so-called Abraham accords saw Israel identify diplomatic ties with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan, however, the negotiations have been widely criticised for Palestinian interests in the revival.
Experts also said the long-running implementation of the Abraham Accords has been in doubt amid regional outrage over the war in Gaza.
Still, Witkoff said he believed an elusive long-standing normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia can still be reached. He went even further, saying that he believed that every country and every country in the region could be “on board” with such an agreement.
“My view is that a precedent conditional on normalization is a ceasefire,” Witkoff said. “We had to make other people believe. “
Asked to specify which countries were open to a deal, Witkoff pointed to Qatar, praising its role as a mediator in the Gaza negotiations.
Qatar has rejected the possibility of normalizing ties with Israel.