US envoy confirms Israel heads to Gaza talks after detainee swap

According to a US envoy, Israeli officials were on their way Tuesday to negotiations on the next stage of a ceasefire deal in Gaza after reaching an agreement to exchange Palestinian detainees for bodies of Israeli hostages.

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, said that he was also prepared to return to the area to support diplomatic efforts.

“We’re making a lot of progress. Israel is sending a team right now as we speak,” Witkoff told an event in Washington for the American Jewish Committee.

“It’s either going to be in Doha or in Cairo, where negotiations will begin again with the Egyptians and the Qataris,” he said.

Egypt, Qatar, and the United States reached a deal in January after months of diplomacy to halt more than a year of violence in Gaza, in an uncommon collaboration between Trump’s diplomatic team and former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Mediators announced Tuesday that they had reinstated a swap that was part of the first phase of the agreement, which is slated to expire on March 1.

Israel agreed to release 600 Palestinian detainees who were scheduled to be released last week in return for the corpses of four Israeli hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier held off on the deal due to what he described as “humiliating ceremonies” to free the hostages by Hamas, which opened the war with an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Witkoff said the focus of the new talks will be to “put phase two on track and have some additional hostage release – and we think that’s a real possibility.”

Witkoff said that “maybe” he will join the negotiations on Sunday “if it goes well.” He earlier spoke of traveling to the region this week.

Trump in his first term spearheaded the so-called Abraham Accords, in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel – the first Arab countries to do so in decades.

Witkoff voiced optimism at efforts to bring onboard Saudi Arabia, arguably the biggest prize due to its significance as guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.

But he also said he saw potential for normalization by Lebanon and Syria, after recent setbacks by forces in the two countries with ties to Iran’s clerical government.

“Lebanon, by the way, could actually mobilize and come into the Abraham Peace Accords, as could potentially Syria. So, so many profound changes are happening,” Witkoff said.