At another meeting with hostage families this week, Witkoff was pressed on why the US didn’t force Israel to stop. “We’re not the Israeli government. We don’t disagree. The Israeli government is a sovereign government. They can’t tell us what to do, and we can’t tell them what to do,” Witkoff said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Haaretz.

Israel’s military operations in Gaza are entirely reliant on US military aid, meaning the US has the ability to pressure Netanyahu to end the slaughter and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, which has been under a total Israeli blockade since March 2.