The US exit followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalling his negotiating team from Doha hours earlier.
Sticking point
The sides have held weeks of talks in Qatar, reporting small signs of progress but no major breakthroughs. Officials have said a main sticking point is the redeployment of Israeli troops after any ceasefire takes place.
Hamas says it will only release all hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war. Israel says it will not agree to that until Hamas gives up power and disarms – a condition the militant group rejects.
Speaking at a ceremony on Friday AEST, Netanyahu said Israel would not give in to the demands of terrorists.
“If Hamas understands our readiness to reach a deal as weakness, as an opportunity to dictate terms of surrender to us that will endanger Israel, it is greatly mistaken,” he said, according to The Times of Israel. “We are determined to achieve all the aims of the war.”
Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, 1, is facing life-threatening malnutrition. Having dropped from nine to six kilograms, he struggles to survive in a tent in Gaza City, where milk, food, and other basic necessities are lacking.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
Trump has frequently expressed optimism about a ceasefire in Gaza despite a previous truce, implemented at the end of the Biden administration, collapsing in March.
Australia recently joined a coalition of 28 nations, including Canada, France and Italy, calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and condemning Israel over the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians seeking aid.
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The wartorn territory recently had its deadliest day yet for aid-seekers in more than 21 months of war, with at least 85 Palestinians killed while trying to reach food on Sunday.
Major news organisations have also said their contributing reporters in Gaza are starving. In a joint statement this week, the BBC and wire services AP, AFP and Reuters called on Israel to allow foreign journalists in and out of Gaza and ensure adequate food supplies reach the people there.
The United Nations World Food Program said the hunger crisis in Gaza had reached “new and astonishing levels of desperation”, with nearly one in three people without food for days.
At a press briefing in Washington, State Department spokesman Thomas Pigott did not answer questions about what Witkoff meant by “alternative options” to bring home hostages and improve the situation in Gaza.
“The question has never been our commitment to a ceasefire. The question has been Hamas’ commitment to a ceasefire,” he said.
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Macron, one of the Western leaders who has been most critical of Israel, said on Friday (AEST) that France would officially recognise Palestine as a state.
In a letter to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Macron said he would make the announcement at September’s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
The PA is the governing body that exercises limited control over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as opposed to militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
