Witkoff: Hamas Has No Future in Gaza; Abraham Accords to Expand

President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday he is “confident” that the remains of all Israeli hostages will be returned from the Gaza Strip, and he predicted a major expansion of the Abraham Accords following the ceasefire he helped mediate with Hamas, according to the New York Post.

Witkoff said in a speech at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: “We have recovered 10 sets of remains, and we will seek to return the rest of the deceased until they all come home, and I am confident that will happen.”

Witkoff, who together with Jared Kushner succeeded in reaching an agreement to halt fighting and secure the release of all 20 living hostages on Monday, said “nothing is more sacred than a family’s right to bury” its relatives, and that the United States is working to secure the return of “all the bodies,” a matter that has worried Israelis.

“I have also traveled to Gaza several times. Each time I wear my black hat, people from Gaza come to me because they want peace too,” he said.

He said the transition after the fighting “must include jobs, education, hope and aspirations, not just weapons and violence” for the people of Gaza, “to restore dignity to those who have suffered for far too long.”

He added that “Hamas must unequivocally give up its weapons and has no future in Gaza,” another key element that has not been resolved in Trump’s 20-point peace plan — where the president, hours earlier, threatened to impose sanctions on other countries “for entering and killing” Hamas members if they continued carrying out revenge executions.

U.S. officials revealed on Wednesday that a Turkish team specialized in retrieving bodies after earthquakes will help recover the remains, in partnership with Israeli intelligence.

Witkoff told Holocaust survivors: “When America leads clearly and persuasively, peace inevitably comes, and the world becomes safer for future generations.”

Witkoff said: “As we look to the future, we are strongly committed to significantly expanding the Abraham Accords, based on the trust and mutual respect President Trump built between Israel and its Arab neighbors.”

The event, which commemorates the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, was partly organized by Witkoff’s son Alex, whom Trump appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Witkoff, the billionaire businessman whose wide-ranging activities include helping negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, said his work is partly driven by the death of his son Andrew from a drug overdose.

Every time I meet a hostage family, I carry in the folds of my heart the memory of my son who left this world far too early. Their pain is deep within me. From that pain sprang the determination to ensure that no parent or family, as far as we can, bears this torment alone.

“It has been that sense of shared humanity, turning grief into action, that has driven me every step of the way.”