United States Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that he was "duped" by Hamas because he thought he had the militant group's approval for an "acceptable deal." He claimed that the group's refusal to accept the deal is what led to Israel's renewed attacks in the Gaza Strip.
"Hamas had every opportunity to demilitarize, to accept the bridging proposal that would have given us a forty or fifty-day ceasefire where we could have discussed demilitarization and a final truce. There were all kinds of opportunities to do that, and they elected not to, and this becomes the alternative," Witkoff told Fox News in an interview.
The US envoy noted that his country would be "amenable to a reach out from Hamas" but emphasized that "we need to be clear who the aggressor is here, and that is Hamas."
