ISTANBUL
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Egypt early Wednesday to join Gaza ceasefire talks, US media reported.
“President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday morning to join the negotiations over the deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas and ending the war in Gaza that has now crossed the two-year mark,” the US news portal Axios said.
On Tuesday, Trump met his top national security team to discuss the progress of the Gaza negotiations before Witkoff and Kushner departed for Egypt, the website said.
According to the report, senior US officials expressed cautious optimism about the chances of reaching a deal this week and emphasized that Kushner and Witkoff will not leave Egypt without an agreement to release the hostages and end the war.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani is set to head to Sharm El-Sheikh later in the day to join the negotiations, which began on Monday.
On Sept. 29, Trump unveiled a 20-point proposal that includes the release of all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a ceasefire, the disarmament of Hamas, and the rebuilding of Gaza. Hamas agreed to the plan in principle.
The Israeli military has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave all but uninhabitable and has led to mass displacement, starvation and the proliferation of disease.