President Donald Trump’s optimism about a deal to end the fighting in Gaza, secure the release of hostages, and allow aid to flow into an enclave where people are starving to death has vanished. The US pulled back its negotiators from ceasefire talks this week after the US deemed Hamas neither “coordinated” nor “acting in good faith.” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said he was looking into “alternative options” for getting the hostages out. Trump signaled Friday it was time for Israel to escalate its military campaign, even as images of starving children in Gaza lead to mounting global outrage.
Trump’s words suggested he would do little to pressure Israel to pull back on its 21-month-long military campaign in Gaza, despite a growing humanitarian crisis that led one UN official this week to label Gazans “walking corpses.” Trump declined to describe his recent conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose actions in Gaza and Syria this month have surprised and frustrated him.
Egyptian and Qatar have called the latest suspension in talks “normal in the context of these complex negotiations,” according to a joint statement posted by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A senior Israeli official told CNN that the talks have “not at all” collapsed, and there is still an opportunity for the negotiations to resume. Some US officials hoped both the president’s comments Friday, paired with the decision by Witkoff on Thursday to pull back from the ceasefire talks, would push Hamas into a more conciliatory negotiating stance.
As the starvation crisis in Gaza spirals into a humanitarian catastrophe, urgency is growing to complete a deal. Tunisian President Kais Saied presented Trump’s senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos with photos of malnourished children, desperate for food, and eating sand during a meeting in Tunis on Friday.
