Palm Beach: President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday he hopes to have good things to report about prisoners in Gaza by the time Trump is sworn in as US president on Jan 20.

“Well, I think we’re making a lot of progress, and I don’t want to say too much because I think they’re doing a really good job back in Doha,” Witkoff said at a Trump press conference in Palm Beach, Florida.

Doha has been hosting negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza that would include freeing prisoners. Doha is capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, which along with Egypt and the US has been mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Witkoff said that he if did not travel back to Doha on Tuesday night, he would head there on Wednesday night. “I think that we’ve had some really great progress, and I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” Witkoff said.

Trump, a Republican who will succeed Democratic President Joe Biden, repeated his threat that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the prisoners by the time he takes office.

“It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2025