Steven Witkoff, who was picked by Donald Trump, went to Israel to try and get hostages released from Hamas. This trip happened right before Trump was supposed to take office on January 20th. Witkoff is a rich lawyer and real estate guy and he went because Trump said things would get really bad if the hostages weren’t released before he became president.
After Witkoff’s visit and the deal that followed a lot of people in Israel are wondering why their Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, didn’t agree to the same thing earlier in May of 2024. This has made many Israelis feel uneasy and they really want to know why things were handled the way they were.
The deal Trump’s team made showed that getting the hostages freed was possible even with the same conditions that were available before. It makes you think about how seriously everyone took the hostage situation and why Israeli officials didn’t seem to be able to make it happen earlier.