TRUMP MIDDLE EAST ENVOY SAYS HAMAS SHOULD ‘DO WHAT’S RIGHT’ AND LEAVE GAZA

Thu 06 March 2025:

Hamas has no future in Gaza, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters on Thursday.

He took several questions from reporters outside the White House and confirmed he would be back in the region next week for discussions on the future of the ceasefire in Gaza.

“Hamas has an opportunity to act reasonably, to do what’s right, and then to walk out,” Witkoff said. “They’re not going to be a part of a government there. Everybody understands that, and that is implicit in the May 27 protocol agreement pursuant to which these negotiations are happening. So I think they have to understand that, if they understand that, they get a path to leave.”

That 27 May agreement was the very same ceasefire deal in place now, but put forward eight months earlier by the Biden administration, and agreed to by Hamas but rejected by Israel.

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Hamas has said it accepts it may not govern Gaza in the post-war period, but it rejects the notion of laying down its arms.

“We feel that Hamas has not been forthright with us, and it’s time for them to be forthright with us,” Witkoff said, acknowledging that US hostage affairs envoy Adam Boehler has been meeting with the group in Doha.

American captive Eden Alexander, still held in Gaza, “would be a very important show”, Witkoff said, “so we’ll see, we’ll see how they’re going to react.”

On the Egyptian proposal to counter Trump’s “riviera” idea for Gaza, Witkoff said:

“I just finished reading it. There’s a lot of compelling features to it. We need more discussion about it but it’s a good faith first step from the Egyptians. And I think the larger point is that President Trump is now encouraging what he’s talking about in Gaza, is now encouraging the people in the Middle East… to present proactive proposals for what we might consider. And that’s what we’re doing, we’re considering, we’re evaluating everything there. So it’s a little bit early to comment.”

On Trump’s stunning social media post threatening to kill all Gazans, Witkoff responded:

“I don’t want to put words to this mouth, but I think it’s fairly clear. He was saying, ‘I’ve had enough.’ Like there’s a lot of mistreatment, there’s a lot of conversation among these hostages about the deprivation that they went through, about murders that they saw, and I think that the president had listened to it, absorbed it, and said this: ‘It’s unacceptable. I’m not going to tolerate this type of behaviour’.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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