Israeli and Hamas officials commenced discussions on Monday (October 6) in Egypt on the US peace plan for Gaza, announced by US President Donald Trump last week. The talks commenced in the Sharm-el-Sheikh Resort on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack, which set the stage for Israel’s protracted war with Palestine. While the Israeli delegation is led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, the Hamas delegation is led by senior leader Khalil Al-Hayya, who was the target of surprise Israeli strikes in Qatar last month. Also in attendance will be Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Special Envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who served as the president’s Special Advisor in his first term (2017-21). Over the past nine months, Witkoff has been the face of Trump’s outreach in the Middle East and elsewhere, approaching complex geopolitical negotiations with the savvy of a real estate mogul seeking to conclude deals. Here is what to know about Steve Witkoff, and his ties to the US president. Lawyer-turned-real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, 68, was born in the Bronx and raised in Long Island, New York. The son of women’s coat manufacturer Martin Witkoff, Steve has a BA in Political Science and Juris Doctor (similar to the LLB in India) from Hofstra University in New York. He became a real estate lawyer before switching to property development, building his company, the Witkoff Group, in the 1990s. As of 2019, the Witkoff Group owned 50 properties across the US and worldwide, including the famous Park Lane Hotel and The Woolworth Building in New York. From a deli shop to the White House In 2023, Witkoff recalled that his friendship with Trump had begun at a New York City deli in 1986 after the duo had worked on a transaction. Witkoff made this admission as part of his testimony as an expert witness in the hush money scandal trial in Manhattan. Trump would be convicted in May 2024 by a jury of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal. “I ordered him a ham and swiss (cheese sandwich),” Witkoff said, adding that Trump had no cash on him at the time. When the two met seven or eight years later, Trump recalled the “sandwich incident”, following which the two built a close friendship over shared interests in realty and golf. Incidentally, Witkoff was present at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when the latter was reportedly targeted by a would-be assassin for the second time. Over the years, the two have developed a close friendship. Witkoff was a prominent presence during Trump’s re-election campaign. He even addressed the 2024 Republican National Convention, describing Trump as a “true and dear friend for many years, in good times and bad times”. Witkoff has previously spoken of the president’s support when his son Andrew died from an opioid overdose in 2011. Close association in business deals Witkoff’s association with the president extends beyond their personal friendship into the realm of shared business interests, with critics flagging potential conflicts of interest between their government positions and their businesses. For one, he has retained his ownership in the Witkoff Group even after securing his official position. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told The New York Times last month that Witkoff was “finalizing” the process of divesting from his company. World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency and decentralised finance platform described by The NYT this April as having “eviscerated the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in ways without precedent”, is virtually a family business run by Trump’s and Witkoff’s sons. Both Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff are listed as Cofounders Emeritus on the company website, with an addendum noting they had stepped down from this position since entering office. According to The NYT report, World Liberty benefited from the president’s crypto-friendly legislation, engaged in “mutual investment deals” in which several businesses curried favour for political quid pro quo, and is 60% owned by a Trump business entity which stands to earn 75% of certain revenue in coin sales. Role in Israel ceasefire process Most significantly, Witkoff has been an integral part of the US’s efforts to secure a ceasefire in Palestine, and to secure the release of Israeli hostages still in the custody of Hamas. To his credit, Witkoff helped secure the January ceasefire and exchange between Israel and Palestine. He worked closely with his counterpart in the Biden administration and bonded with the parents of the Israeli hostages, promising their speedy return. While his success in this arena proved to be short-lived, Witkoff was lauded for his ability to handle the tenaciously uncooperative Benjamin Netanyahu, who had resisted all attempts to broker peace before January 2025. Witkoff was also an architect of the infamous Gaza Riviera proposal, which the president announced in February after the former visited the region a month earlier. In an interview with The Economist, Witkoff said that he had only focused on how long it would take to rebuild Gaza, and that it was never the Trump administration’s intent to force them to leave. The idea drew flak from Israel’s neighbours, and Egypt rebuffed Trump’s push to accommodate Palestinian refugees. Witkoff remains optimistic that the talks in Egypt this week could result in a deal to end the war and see the remaining hostages released, Politico reported on Saturday (October 4). Ties to the Middle East, especially Qatar Witkoff’s business dealings with Middle Eastern businesses and Israel helped him secure the post of Special Envoy. Recalling his discussion with Trump over a potential position in the White House, Witkoff told The Economist: “He said to me, ‘What do you want to do?’” Witkoff recalled. “‘What secretary position do you want?’ And I said to him, ‘I want to be the peace guy.’” However, this same proximity has put Witkoff under the scanner. An NYT investigation published on September 26 said that at the height of its geopolitical isolation from its Arab neighbours in 2017, Qatar had targeted and leveraged Witkoff to help curry favour with then-President Trump. Witkoff’s Jewish identity was a key attraction, and was reportedly believed to “provide credibility to others in the greater Jewish community,” The NYT reported. This outreach translated into quid pro quo, where Qatari officials purchased the Park Lane Hotel, the beleaguered property mired in financial scandal, The NYT report said. Last week Qatar used the September Israeli attack on its soil to extract an assurance from the US president guaranteeing its security against any armed attack and treating it “a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” This marked a major NATO-level assurance for a strategic non-NATO ally of the US. A separate investigation by The NYT on September 15 said that Zach Witkoff, his son, had used the Trump administration’s three-state visit to the Middle East in May to conclude a deal granting the UAE access to “ hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips” in exchange for a $2 billion investment into World Liberty Financial.
