Trump’s Middle East envoy to meet Israeli PM Netanyahu, amid ceasefire push

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Jan 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday following his visit to Doha, an Israeli official said, amid efforts to secure a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza.

A second Israeli official said some progress had been made in the indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to reach a deal in Gaza.

The mediators are making new efforts to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining Israeli hostages held there before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Witkoff arrived in Doha on Friday and met the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to a statement released by Qatar’s foreign ministry.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators received reassurances from Witkoff that the U.S. would continue to work towards a fair deal to end the war soon, Egyptian security sources said, though he did not give any details.

On Saturday, the Palestinian civil emergency service said eight people were killed, including two women and two children, in an Israeli airstrike on a former school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said the strike had targeted Hamas militants who were operating at the school and that it had taken measures to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.

Later on Saturday, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said five people were killed and several others were wounded in two Israeli strikes. One of the two strikes killed three people in a house near the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas militant “in that area” at that approximate time.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, with most of its population displaced.