US special envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet soon with Khalil al-Hayya, the chief negotiator for the Hamas terror group, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with his plans.
The report did not disclose the exact date of the meeting, and plans are still underway for the exact time Witkoff will be flying back to the Middle East.
The meeting would reportedly focus on the Gaza ceasefire and the next steps in the near future.
The newspaper also clarified that both Witkoff representatives and the White House, as well as Hamas officials, decline to comment.
Another thing that the report points out is the fact that Witkoff's meeting comes at a time when both Israeli and US officials seem to see any contact with Hamas as a way to appease the terror group's current movements to tighten its grip on Gaza.
US pressure on Israeli officials
The reports on a possible visit by Witkoff come after Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and one of the most influential US officials in the ceasefire negotiations, visited Israel to discuss the implementation of Trump's peace plan for Gaza with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They discussed disarming Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza, and ensuring Hamas has no role in Gaza ever again, while also trying to reach an agreement on what to do with the 200 Hamas terrorists trapped in a tunnel on the Israeli side of Rafah, Gaza Strip.
Both Kushner and Witkoff met with Netanyahu just last month to discuss developments in the region.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote a letter to Vance, Witkoff, and the US administration, thanking them for their visit. "We fear that our loved ones will be forgotten, that their fate will remain unknown for decades or even forever," the letter reads.
The US officials also discussed the negotiations leading to the Trump Peace Deal, as well as the recent Israeli strike in Doha, and the emotional return of the hostages, in an exclusive 60 Minutes interview with CBS, which aired in October.
Filmed just days before Hamas broke the truce with an anti-tank attack, the interview remains strikingly relevant.
As Trump’s envoys and mediators, the two shared behind-the-scenes details of the ceasefire talks, from their “shock and sense of betrayal” over the Doha strike to their visit to Gaza, where they described the relief of seeing the hostages come home.