U.S. President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff is planning an in-person meeting with senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya to maintain direct communication with the terrorist organization, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing two anonymous sources familiar with the envoy’s plans, the report did not state the objective of the meeting, other than noting the Gaza ceasefire as one of the topics for discussion.
Such a meeting, if it occurs, would be the officials’ second.
Witkoff met with al-Hayya in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in October, together with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as a result of Washington’s push to forge a truce between Israel and Hamas.
An agreement was reportedly cemented in that meeting, after which the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, with the prompt release of the 20 remaining living hostages.
Hamas is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Direct meetings between American officials and members of the Islamist group are highly unusual.
Speaking to CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Witkoff recounted the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, saying that he offered al-Hayya condolences for the loss of his son Himam, who was killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, on Sept. 9.
“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,” Witkoff said.
Witkoff’s son Andrew died of an opioid overdose in 2011.
The Times reported that Witkoff was planning to meet with al-Hayya soon, but did not provide a precise date or the meeting’s whereabouts.
The ceasefire in Gaza has remained intact despite repeated violations by Hamas, including the killing of four IDF soldiers, and retaliatory strikes throughout the Strip by the Israeli military.
The terrorist group had agreed to release all remaining hostages, alive and dead, in the first phase, before moving on to the second stage, which requires its disarmament. The truce was mediated by the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, although other countries have since joined the post-ceasefire deliberations in the effort to uphold the agreement.
The Israel Defense Forces currently holds about 58% of Gaza. It is deployed to the east and along a so-called Yellow Line that runs through the north, center and south of the Strip, with Hamas controlling the enclave’s western areas.
An International Stabilization Force is slated to be deployed to Gaza as an interim security force, until an alternate Palestinian body can govern the Strip.
