The duo responsible for brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas shared insights into how they convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend an apology to Qatari officials following a lethal assault on Hamas targets within Qatar’s borders.
Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, recounted Trump’s anger over the unexpected September 9 attack on Doha. This incident, which claimed the life of the son of chief Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, threatened to jeopardize ongoing peace discussions.
They revealed that Trump was unaware of Netanyahu’s intentions to strike Doha, which left them feeling deceived by the action.
“I think he felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control,” Kushner explained. “It was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interest.”
In the aftermath of the attack, Hamas leaders went into hiding, bringing a sudden halt to the negotiations Kushner and Witkoff had been conducting just a day earlier. The pair discussed this during a 60 Minutes interview aired on Sunday night.
“The apology was essential,” Witkoff remarked. “We couldn’t proceed without it, and the president told [Netanyahu], ‘People apologize.'”
‘It was the linchpin that got us to the next place,’ he added. ‘It was really, really important that it happened.’
Trump then held the phone for Netanyahu on September 29 as he read a scripted apology to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani from the Oval Office.
The President also gave Qatar a new security guarantee – and even allowed Kushner and Witkoff to speak directly with Hamas officials, despite the United States designating the group as a terrorist organization.
The new revelations came as Trump responded to claims that Hamas has once again started firing at Israeli targets.
‘They’ve been doing some shooting and we think maybe the leadership isn’t involved in that, that it’s some rebels within,’ the President told reporters on Air Force One.
‘But either way, it’s going to be handled toughly, but properly.’
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (left) and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (right) spoke about the hurdles they faced trying to negotiate a peace deal between Israel and Gaza in an interview with 60 Minutes that was broadcast Sunday night
They shared how Donald Trump allowed them to speak with Hamas officials directly, despite the United States categorizing the group as a terrorist organization. Kushner is pictured here with members of the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza
The President forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize to Qatari officials following a deadly attack on the country striking Hamas officials
He added that the ceasefire Kushner and Witkoff worked so hard to achieve still remains in effect.
In order to get the deal across the finish line, Kushner and Witkoff traveled to Egypt on October 8, where they met with al-Hayya.
Despite their differences, Kushner and Witkoff were then able to make some headway in the negotiations when Witkoff spoke about his own son, Andrew, who died of an opioid overdose at the age of 22.
‘We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son. He mentioned it,’ Witkoff recounted. ‘And I told him that I had lost a son, and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children.’
At that moment, Kushner said ‘it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other.’
Once an understanding was struck, Kushner and Witkoff were able to assure Hamas that the United States would stand behind its deal and that Trump would not allow the deal to be violated.
When the deal was then reached, Witkoff said Israelis and Qataris – who were acting as the liaisons for Hamas – hugged.
‘I thought to myself, “I wish the world could’ve seen it,”‘ Witkoff said.
Images of smoke billowing over the Qatari capital last month stunned the world and caught leaders off guard, as it marked the first time Israel had ever attacked Qatar – a nation that Trump has grown increasingly close to in recent times.
Kushner and Witkoff are seen speaking with IDF soldiers in Gaza
Witkoff and Kushner speaking to a crowd after hostages were released in Israel
Just months before, Trump announced that he had accepted a $400 million Boeing 747 luxury jet from the Qataris as a gift, and many in the President’s inner circle – including Kushner – have an array of business interests tied to the nation.
Trump quickly showed his disapproval of Netanyahu’s unexpected move in Doha.
Taking to Truth Social hours later, he wrote that he ‘immediately directed special envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack.’
‘I view Qatar as a strong ally and friend and feel very badly about the location of the attack,’ Trump wrote.
‘I want ALL of the hostages, and bodies of the dead, released, and this War to END, NOW!’
Smoke rises after blasts were heard in Doha, Qatar, after the Israeli attack on September 9
Trump’s 20-point peace plan was finally signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on October 13 to mark the end of the two-year Gaza war.
In the aftermath, Kushner traveled to the Gaza Strip – where he said he was struck by the devastation he saw.
‘It looked almost like a nuclear bomb went off in that area,’ he recounted. ‘And then you see these people moving back, and I asked the IDF where are they going. Like I’m looking around and these are all ruins.
‘And they said, “Well they’re going back to the areas where their destroyed home was, onto their plot, and they’re gonna pitch a tent.”‘
‘And it’s very sad because you think to yourself they really have nowhere else to go,’ Kushner said.
Still, he and Witkoff denied there was ever a ‘genocide’ in the region.
‘There was a war being fought,’ Witkoff noted.
Kushner told how he was struck by the devastation he saw in Gaza
He said it ‘looked almost like a nuclear bomb went off in that area’
Following the ceasefire, Kushner said residents started returning to their destroyed properties, where they would set up tents
Meanwhile, in Israel the accord meant the return of hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack, which Witkoff and Kushner said was something they had to convince Hamas leadership to agree to.
‘The notion was to convince everybody that those 20 Israeli hostages who were alive were no longer assets for Hamas. They were a liability,’ Witkoff said.
Kushner then explained that they had to get Hamas to think about what it was gaining from keeping the hostages.
‘You had tens of thousands of Palestinians who were killed in these wars,’ he noted.
Yet questions remain over how long the truce will last, after images emerged showing Hamas executing Palestinians that it perceived as ‘collaborators’ with Israel.
Kushner said the actions, though horrific, were ultimately not surprising.
‘Hamas right now is doing exactly what you would expect a terrorist organization to do, which is to try to reconstitute and take back their positions,’ he said.
‘The success or failure of this will be if Israel and this international mechanism is able to create a viable alternative.
‘If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future.’
