It’s ‘All Or Nothing’

White House envoy Steve Witkoff told hostage families on Saturday that President Trump wants to “shift” the Gaza policy from trying to get a partial and phased Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal to reaching a comprehensive deal that ends the war and returns all remaining hostages at once, according to a statement by the families and recordings from the meeting.

Witkoff’s remarks, during a two-hour meeting in Tel Aviv with dozens of families of hostages held by Hamas, were an acknowledgment that the approach Israel and the U.S. have pursued over the last six months to try and reach a partial and incremental ceasefire and hostage deal has failed.

Two members of the hostage families who were in the room said Witkoff listened for a long time to every family member who wanted to speak. “We never have these meetings with senior Israeli government officials,” one family member said.

Witkoff told the families he doesn’t have “perfect news” for them but stressed he believes “we are going to be successful here ultimately” for reasons he said he can’t discuss at the moment.

“President Trump now believes that everybody ought to come home at once – no piecemeal deals. That doesn’t work,” Witkoff said.

“Now we have to get all the 20 [live hostages] at the same time… we think that we have to shift this negotiation to all or nothing so that everybody comes home. We think it is going to be successful and we have a plan around it.”