Steve Witkoff, the new US Middle East envoy, has described the ceasefire deal he helped broker between Israel and Hamas as "the most worthy thing I could ever do in my life."
Speaking alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the official opening of the Altneu Synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Witkoff said: "I have to thank President Trump because, without him, I don't think that we would have had the deal. When he asked me to do this job, he said to me: ‘We got to get these people home.’"
He continued: "And he knew—because he had been at my son's funeral—that I was a member of a very bad club, the club of parents who have buried a child. And I'm always comparing my family and what it went through when I lost my boy, Andrew, and what it must have been like for these families, because they've been tortured for 15 months, not knowing what was going to happen to their girls, not knowing if people were going to survive the winter."
Witkoff's son died in 2011 aged just 22 as a result of an opioid overdose while checked into a rehab facility in LA.
The real estate mogul turned diplomat also revealed that the release of the first seven Israeli hostages since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19 brought Trump to tears.
"Today, I was sent a picture of ... [released hostage] Naama Levy ... and she was in the helicopter with her dad and she had a ...sort of blackboard and she wrote on it: 'Thank you, President Trump.'
"And I was with him this morning, and I showed it to him, and he had tears in his eyes.”
Witkoff proceeded to thank his "dear friend", Mossad chief David Barnea as well as the “exceptional” Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, who were also involved in the indirect talks in Doha.
Moreover, he gave plenty of credit for the success of the negotiations to Qatari and Egyptian mediators, despite rows over the former’s impartiality in Israel.
He added: "The Qataris were enormously relevant. They were the people who were dialoguing with Hamas. The Egyptians were important. Everybody in the region was important.”
Finally, Witkoff announced he would be traveling to Israel on Wednesday to ensure that the deal with Hamas is implemented "in a correct way."
"Hopefully we'll get to phase two as well, and we'll get everybody out who is alive, back to their families, and bodies, because there are many families who are waiting for the bodies of their children. They can't bury them," he added. "So we've got to get those bodies out too, and that's just as important."
Meanwhile, in his address, Herzog told Witkoff: "Our sages teach us, 'Whoever saves one life, it is as if they have saved an entire world’. You have already saved seven lives from Gaza, and hopefully, six additional hostages will be freed from Gaza this week.
"This is an opportunity to thank President Trump for his commitment. I wish you great success in your mission to bring peace and stability to our region."
During the ceremony, the Israeli head of state joined other dignitaries in reciting the Hebrew prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel, as well as a prayer for the safety of the hostages that remain in Hamas captivity.
