Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the two men who spearheaded President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, both rejected claims from critics who accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza during a Sunday interview on 60 Minutes.
Correspondent Leslie Stahl asked both men “would you say now, having been there, that it was genocide?”
“No, no,” Kushner quickly responded.
“Absolutely not. No,” Witkoff said right after. “No, there was a war being fought.”
Israel’s military offensive started immediately after Hamas terrorists broke into Israel and killed 1,195 people and took hundreds of hostages back to Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Kushner, a moment before Stahl’s question, said he went to Gaza after the ceasefire deal was reached and saw firsthand how badly Hamas lost the war.
“It looked almost like a nuclear had been set off in that area,” Kushner said. “And then you see these people moving back, and I asked the IDF ‘Where are they going?’ Like, I’m looking around, these are all ruins. And they said ‘Well, they’re going back to the areas where their destroyed home was, onto their plot, and they’re going to pitch a tent.’”
Kushner added: “It’s very sad, because you think to yourself: they really have nowhere else to go.”
Kushner and Witkoff, the president’s special envoy to the Middle East, attended a rally last week in Tel Aviv to celebrate the pending release of 20 living hostages. The crowd at Hostages Square at one point broke into a chant of “Thank you, Trump! Thank you, Trump!” to salute the president and his administration for brokering the deal.
Trump, during his trip to Israel to celebrate the ceasefire on October 13, said there was now a “great opportunity” to revamp Gaza.
“Even before the war, it was — it was a hellhole, let’s face it,” Trump told Fox News. “Before this, before the bombing and everything else.”
He added that when he sees pictures and video of Gazans, he sees “good people,” and that he hopes they can remain there as it is rebuilt.
Kusher, during his interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, said his “biggest message” to Israeli leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu now is to “help the Palestinian people thrive and do better” — which Kushner said will help Israel “integrate with the broader Middle East.”
You can watch part of the 60 Minutes segment above, via CBS.
The post Kushner, Witkoff Reject 60 Minutes Question on Whether Israel Committed a ‘Genocide’ in Gaza: ‘Absolutely Not’ first appeared on Mediaite.
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