Hamas: Witkoff vowed to lift Gaza blockade in exchange for captive Edan Alexander
A senior Hamas official has said that US special envoy Witkoff personally assured the Palestinian resistance group that the US would pressure Israel to end the Gaza blockade and permit humanitarian access within two days of freeing American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who has previously engaged in direct talks with US officials, told Drop Site that Witkoff also promised that Trump would make a public call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for negotiations aimed at achieving a “permanent ceasefire.”
“It was a deal,” he said, adding that the pledge was made by “Witkoff, himself.”
Referring to the deal, he said, “If we release [Alexander], Trump will speak out thanking Hamas for its gesture, obliging Israel on the second day to open the borders and allow aid to come into Gaza, and [Trump would] call for an immediate ceasefire and to go for negotiations to end the war.”
According to Naim, “He did nothing of this. They didn’t violate the deal. They threw it in the trash.”
This week in Doha, Witkoff and Adam Boehler, the White House special envoy on captives, held multiple discussions with Israeli negotiators and regional mediators from Qatar and Egypt. Although both US officials voiced public optimism about a potential breakthrough, Naim dismissed any signs of advancement. ”Zero,” he stated. ”Big zero.”
“They returned back to talking about the Israeli proposal or the Israeli-Witkoff proposal, as if nothing happened during the last one or two weeks, including the release of Alexander, who was released within the context of direct talks with the Americans,” Naim said.
The 21-year-old Alexander has been held captive since October 7, 2023, when the resistance fighters launched a uniquely courageous operation against the occupied Palestinian territories.
On Monday, Hamas said it released Edan Alexander “following contacts with the US administration.”
According to the statement, the move comes “as part of the efforts made by mediators to achieve a ceasefire, open crossings, and deliver aid to the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.
Trump on Gaza: Pledges aid but floats US takeover
On Friday, while concluding his Persian Gulf tour, Trump briefly commented on the Gaza conflict and the severe humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s comprehensive blockade of the territory.
“We’re looking at Gaza, and we got to get that taken care of,” he said at a public event in the United Arab Emirates. “A lot of people are starving. A lot of people. There’s a lot of bad things going on.”
Naim noted Trump’s comments on Gaza’s starvation crisis but highlighted that, just a day earlier, he had floated the idea of the US taking control of Gaza—saying he’d be “proud” to claim the Palestinian territory and turn it into a “freedom zone.”
He expressed skepticism about reaching a deal unless Trump pressures Israel to act. “If [Netanyahu] still enjoys impunity from the Americans and the Western countries, and the feeling in the international community is that he can” break agreements, Naim stated, then talks are futile.
“As long as Israel has a free hand and behaves as a spoiled boy, as a rogue state, they can do it again and again,” he added.
