Hamas Says Witkoff Personally Promised to Lift Gaza Blockade in Exchange for Edan Alexander
The U.S. immediately broke the deal, senior Hamas official Basem Naim tells Drop Site. “They threw it in the trash” and there has been “zero” progress on a Gaza ceasefire.
A senior Hamas official told Drop Site that the group received a direct commitment from Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, that two days after the release of U.S. citizen and Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, the Trump administration would compel Israel to lift the Gaza blockade and allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory. Witkoff, according to the official, 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,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau who has previously engaged in direct talks with U.S. officials. He said the pledge was made by “Witkoff, himself.” In an interview with Drop Site, Naim said the agreement was: “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.”
“He did nothing of this,” Naim added. “They didn't violate the deal. They threw it in the trash.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The release of Alexander, who was taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023 from the Israeli military base where he was stationed, was a significant event: He was the first male soldier freed by Hamas since the war began 19 months ago. Hamas said it freed him as a “gesture of goodwill” toward Trump and because it believed it had received a commitment Alexander’s release would result in the immediate delivery of food, medicine, and fuel into Gaza.
On Friday, as Trump wrapped up his tour of Gulf nations, he briefly addressed the Gaza war and the dire humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel’s full spectrum blockade of Gaza. For 76 days, Israel has banned all food, medicine, water, and fuel from entering Gaza. The siege has plunged the population into a state of forced starvation. Nearly the entire population of Gaza is facing severe levels of food insecurity and thousands of children are already suffering from acute malnutrition. These numbers are expected to rise dramatically in the coming months if the blockade is not lifted. “We’re looking at Gaza, and we got to get that taken care of,” Trump 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 acknowledged Trump’s remarks about starvation in Gaza, but pointed out that, the day prior, Trump had once again raised the prospect of the U.S. seizing Gaza and saying he would be “proud” to “take” the Palestinian territory and “make it just a freedom zone.” In February, standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Trump announced that he wanted to transform Gaza into a U.S.-owned “Middle East Riviera.”
“You are not dealing with steady, stable politics,” said Naim. Trump “can say what he wants. We are looking for actions. We are not looking for words or for statements. The humanitarian disaster has to end immediately, and this is an obligation, this is not a negotiation issue. And the war has to end.”
“If someone expects to achieve any other goals without de-escalating the situation in Palestine, in particular in Gaza,” Naim added, “I think he is—I cannot say he is hallucinating, but he is at least a big dreamer.”
Trump’s “Humanitarian” Plan
Both the U.S. and Israel have been pushing plans, which would not be linked to any ceasefire, to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip. The White House has said it would empower a newly created “non-governmental” organization to formally run the program alongside U.S. security contractors. This proposal for aid distribution involves a system of political vetting and calorie restrictions, and it would require Palestinians to travel long distances and pass extensive security checks to receive meager rations of food. Pre-approved representatives of families in Gaza would be permitted to pick up food supplies once every other week under the plan. While Israeli forces would not distribute the aid, the army would be involved with security.
“There’s a plan out there that’s been offered—that’s been criticized by some—but it allows people to get aid without Hamas stealing it. And we’ll continue to work toward that in ways that we think are constructive and productive,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday. “We’re open to an alternative if someone has a better one.”
The UN and dozens of international aid groups working in Gaza have denounced the proposal, saying it would weaponize access to food and other life-sustaining supplies. They have called for an immediate ceasefire followed by unrestricted aid flow into Gaza.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a new Trump-backed group registered in Switzerland, said this week it had reached an agreement with Israel to begin operating in Gaza by the end of May. Israel has indicated that the aid distribution would be run from southern Gaza near the border with Egypt. UN officials have warned the plan could be part of Israel’s stated aim of driving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from northern and central Gaza to the south.
On May 4, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan code named “Operation Gideon’s Chariot” that it threatened to implement if Hamas did not capitulate to Israel’s demands by the time Trump finished his tour of the Gulf. Its explicit aim would be the “conquest of the Gaza Strip”: an open-ended occupation enforced by “wide-scale” attacks and the destruction of Gaza’s remaining infrastructure. Palestinians would be herded into the wasteland of what was once Rafah.
In the days leading up to Trump’s trip to the Gulf, Netanyahu authorized a dramatic escalation of Israel’s terror bombing of Gaza and began amassing troops along stretches of Gaza.
On Friday, more than 90 Palestinians were killed and over 200 wounded in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Nearly 3,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel resumed its relentless assault on March 18, with at least 250 killed in just the past two days. The Ministry’s Director General, Munir al-Barsh, described the attacks on the Strip as “the most heinous massacres of ethnic cleansing.”
The Israeli military has issued mass displacement orders for Beit Lahia, Jabalia, and other northern areas, causing panicked families to flee their homes with no safe haven to go to. “Whether you’re in shelters, tents or buildings… evacuate to the south immediately,” read leaflets dropped by the Israeli military over the areas. Footage obtained by Al Jazeera documented Israeli forces targeting and killing civilians attempting to flee with artillery fire. The forced evacuation orders came hours after 66 Palestinians were killed overnight in the north, according to staff at the Indonesian Hospital—where images uploaded by witnesses showed corpses lying on emergency room floors.
In northern Gaza, paramedic Mohammad Abu Louay reported over 15 airstrikes hitting densely populated residential zones, including Tal al-Zaatar and Jabalia camp. Entire families remain trapped or missing under the rubble. Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, described the assault as “a night of the horrors of the Day of Judgment.” He described Israeli forces intensifying indiscriminate bombings, striking inhabited homes without warning and targeting ambulance crews attempting to reach survivors.
Hamas Says “Zero” Progress on Ceasefire
While Witkoff, according to Hamas, had promised the U.S. would facilitate the lifting of Israel’s blockade on Gaza two days after Alexander’s release, the U.S. appeared to completely abandon the agreement. On May 13, the day after Hamas freed Alexander, Israel launched a massive series of air strikes on the European Hospital in Khan Younis, killing 28 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others. Israel claimed the target of the strike was Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of the late political leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar. Mohammed Sinwar assumed command of Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, after Israel assassinated its previous commanders Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa.
Israeli officials have suggested that targeting Sinwar would soften Hamas’s stance in negotiations, claiming the Qassam commander was enforcing a hard line. Hamas has not confirmed Sinwar’s death, and Naim dismissed the idea that killing him would have any impact. “I think this is part of the Israeli strategy, but it has proven that this strategy is failing for 17 months. They have killed Yahya Sinwar, they have killed Deif, they have killed Marwan Issa. They have killed a lot of leaders and no one has witnessed a clear breakdown, not only in the negotiation, but also in the whole battle, the whole fighters, tactics and strategies,” Naim said. “The decision of the negotiations is not a one man show decision. This is decided by a lot of people inside Gaza and outside Gaza.”
Witkoff and Adam Boehler, the White House special envoy on hostages, held several meetings in Doha this week with Israeli negotiators, as well as with regional mediators from Qatar and Egypt. While both U.S. officials publicly expressed optimism this week that a deal could be on the horizon, Naim said there has been no progress. “Zero,” he said. “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. “They are insisting on gradual or partial deals. They are talking about partial deals to release some of the prisoners for a temporary ceasefire, and then to go for open negotiations without any commitment to end the war.”
Israeli news outlets reported Friday that no breakthroughs had occurred in Doha this week. YNet reported that after two days of meetings, Witkoff “has given up and is letting Israel make the decisions.” The Times of Israel reported that in the face of Netanyhau’s refusal to make any concessions, “Witkoff has told other mediators that Washington doesn’t plan to force Israel to end the war in Gaza.”
In the talks this week, Naim said that mediators have not presented any substantial changes to the so-called “Witkoff draft” circulated by Egyptian mediators in April and obtained by Drop Site. The short-term Witkoff proposal scrapped crucial elements of the framework from the original 3-phase deal signed by Hamas and Israel in January, which would have brought a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the declaration of a “permanent ceasefire.” The Witkoff draft included significant changes that Hamas has said it would not accept, including the total demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
Under the original deal, Israel was to begin a full withdrawal of its forces at the end of phase one. Under the Witkoff plan, however, Israel would only reposition its forces to where they stood on March 2, leaving them entrenched in various positions in Gaza with no clearly defined timeline for a total withdrawal.
The regional mediators have told Hamas that Israel remains entrenched in its position that it will only engage in short-term agreements that free Israeli captives from Gaza without making any clear commitments to withdraw its forces or to end the war. Hamas has maintained it will not release any more captives unless a deal framework includes a clearly defined path to Israeli withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire consistent with the terms of the original agreement signed in January. “Handing over the [Israeli] prisoners will happen only after we have seen the total withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and a clear declaration of end of the war,” Naim said.
Naim, who was one of two senior Hamas officials that met directly with Boehler in February and has been a central figure in the ongoing direct and indirect communications with U.S. officials, said the Trump administration has often sent contradictory messages. “Sometimes we hear a positive reply or something indicating forward progress in their vision, but suddenly they go back to the same Israeli narrative, to the Israeli conditions,” Naim said. He described the process of trying to discern the Trump’s administration’s positions as less about assessing diplomatic strategy and more like monitoring a financial portfolio. “Like the stock markets, you have to keep watching minute for minute to be sure that you are going to win something at the end. As you know, the stock market in the morning is in one mood, and in the middle of the day in another mood, and the end of the day in a third mood. I think this is one of the biggest challenges.”
The mediators, Naim said, suggested that if no long-term deal was reached by the end of the short-term truce, it could be extended for another period during which more captives would be released.
“This means that you can be 100% sure: we will not succeed to reach a final agreement. At the end of the 45 days [Israel] will say, ‘We have failed,’ as Netanyahu has already done in the original deal, and say after 45 days, ‘In order to extend the negotiations, we want to get more prisoners, otherwise we go back to war and starvation,’” Naim asserted. “We will be in the same position as today, which means that in one session or at maximum two sessions, you have handed over all the prisoners.” He added: “I don't think that any rational or wise negotiator would accept such a deal.”
Netanyahu has made no secret of the fact that he intends to do precisely what Hamas suspects. “Maybe Hamas will say, ‘Wait, we want to release 10 more [captives].’ Fine, bring them. We’ll take them. And then we’ll go in. But there will be no situation where we stop the war,” Netanyahu said at a gathering of wounded Israeli soldiers on Monday.
Naim said he is not optimistic a deal will be reached unless Trump forces Israel’s hand “If [Netanyahu] still enjoys impunity from the Americans and the Western countries, and the feeling in the international community is that he can” violate agreements, Naim said, then negotiations are pointless. “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.”
Drop Site News Middle East Research Fellow Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report.
I will never forgive America for this
The US is clearly eroding the last bit of credibility it has as a party in negotiations.
If the „art of the deal“ is to take what you are offered and then not fulfill your commitment in return, I wonder if there remains anyone so naive to attempt any deals with the US.