Witkoff to host new Gaza talks as Israel-Hamas ceasefire appears stalled

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JERUSALEM (AP) — President Donald Trump's Mideast envoy on Friday will host top officials from Middle Eastern countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire, a State Department official said, in a bid to push the tenuous agreement into its next phase.

The envoy, Steve Witkoff, is Trump's key delegate for handling peace negotiations. He will meet in Miami with officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, said the State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview a meeting that has not yet been publicly announced.

There, the officials will review the implementation of Phase 2 of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The U.S.-brokered truce took effect on Oct. 10, pausing more than two years of war.

In the first phase, Hamas returned the hostages it was holding while Israel returned thousands of Palestinian prisoners and allowed greater quantities of humanitarian aid into war-battered Gaza. The ceasefire has since stalled, with both sides accusing each other of violations.

The second phase, one far more challenging, is supposed to involve the deployment of an international security force, an internationally supervised technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory. The process is to be overseen by a “Board of Peace” chaired by President Donald Trump.

Neither the board nor the international force have yet assembled. Israel has expressed opposition to the potential participation of various countries, including Turkey.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry confirmed the participation of Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at Friday's talks in Miami. The Qatari prime minister, who doubles as the country's foreign minister, said in an interview in Al Jazeera that he, too, would be joining the meeting.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani added that there was an “urgent need” to advance to the next phase and form a Palestinian civil administration in Gaza. He said that the international force must not “protect one party at the expense of another.”

He also accused Israel of repeated violations, saying they risk undermining the agreement and placing mediators in an “embarrassing position.”

Hamas is calling for more international pressure on Israel to open key border crossings, cease deadly strikes and allow more aid into the strip. Israel is demanding the militants return the remains of a final hostage, Ran Gvili.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza are struggling with a lack of aid. Food remains scarce as the territory struggles to bounce back from famine, which affected parts of Gaza during the war.

The initial Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Almost all hostages or their remains have been returned in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s two-year campaign in Gaza has killed more than 70,660 Palestinians, roughly half of them women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count.

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Lee reported from Washington. Samy Magdy in Cairo and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war