US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff recently told families of hostages held in Gaza that he disagrees with Israel’s approach to the war in the Strip, and believes reaching a new ceasefire and hostage release deal is the correct next step to take, a report said Sunday, as reports of the growing rift between the US and Israeli leaders mount.

According to Channel 12, Witkoff told the families that the US “wants to return the hostages, but Israel is not ready to end the war.”

“Israel is prolonging the war, even though we do not see where further progress can be made,” Witkoff said, according to the report, which cited sources who attended the meeting.

“Still, there is currently a window of opportunity that we hope Israel and all the mediators will take advantage of. We are putting pressure on all the mediators and doing everything to return the hostages,” he reportedly said.

Channel 12 cited the families as saying they’ve not heard this kind of criticism of Israeli government policy from Witkoff in the past.

The report also quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials as issuing a warning: “If there are no agreements by the end of [US President Donald] Trump’s visit to the Middle East, Israel will launch a ground operation and it will take several weeks until the next ‘exit point.’ Once we have begun the intensified operation, we won’t agree to quickly halt it. Hamas will not determine the timeline.”

Echoing Witkoff’s reported remarks, however, the officials agreed that there was currently “a window of opportunity,” and stated that the mediators have an obligation to make this clear to Hamas, according to Channel 12.

The report said Israel was open to various proposals — including what it said Israel is calling a “watered-down Witkoff proposal” — but that if Hamas continues its refusal to agree to a deal, there is “no alternative” to an intensified operation that will not end quickly. What Israel has referred to as the “Witkoff proposal” — which sources told The Times of Israel at the time is in fact more of an Israeli offer — provides for the release of around half of the living hostages in return for an extended truce, followed by the release of the rest of the hostages alongside an end to the war.

The network said Witkoff was holding conversations with various key players Sunday night, trying to establish some kind of framework for a deal this week.

Walla news reported that Witkoff was currently holding talks with Hamas, Qatar, Egypt and Israel on a hostage deal and longer-term calm.

After these reports, the Hamas terror group announced Sunday evening that it would release American-Israeli hostage soldier Edan Alexander, believed to be the last remaining living US citizen held hostage in Gaza, and one of 59 total captives still held by Palestinian terror groups.

Alexander was taken captive from his tank during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, during which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages back to the Strip, sparking the ongoing war. He has been held in Gaza for over 580 days.

The Hamas statement, issued ahead of Trump’s trip to the region this week, was meant as a goodwill gesture in the hope that Washington will coax Israel to end the war in Gaza, a source involved in the mediation effort told The Times of Israel.

The source said Hamas has received assurances from the US through mediators that Alexander’s release “would go a long way” with Trump, who wants to see the remaining hostages released and for the war in Gaza to end.

It was unclear when Alexander would be released, but a source involved in the process told The Times of Israel that the goal was for him to be released early this week, potentially as early as Monday.

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the US did not brief Israel on the effort to release Alexander until after the deal with Hamas was reached, saying Israel had generally been aware that efforts were ongoing, but only knew about them from its own intelligence operations.

According to a separate Sunday report, Trump and Netanyahu are increasingly at odds with one another over their contrasting visions for the Middle East, and in particular for the Gaza Strip.

Citing unnamed US officials, NBC reported that Trump is opposed to Netanyahu’s plans for a new, significantly expanded operation in the Gaza Strip, and has privately called it a wasted effort that will interfere with his vision to rebuild the enclave.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, was said to be growing increasingly frustrated with the US approach to Iran amid the nuclear talks and after Washington struck a deal with the Houthis, agreeing to end its intensive bombing campaign in return for an end to the Iran-backed group’s maritime attacks.

Speaking to NBC, one US official said Israel was “worried about any deal” that the US could sign with Iran to thwart its nuclear ambitions.

To that end, two US officials said Netanyahu has privately dismissed the negotiations as a waste of time, arguing that even if a deal is forged, Tehran would inevitably break it.

Israel would rather take action and strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, the report said, and believes that the opportunity to do so is shrinking further the longer talks continue.

Jerusalem is reportedly unhappy with the ongoing US-Iran talks, which are said to be developing into a largely similar framework to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which was signed by then-US president Barack Obama and was panned at the time by Netanyahu as disastrous for Israel.

Under the terms being discussed, according to reports, Iran would limit stockpile size and centrifuge types, and dilute, export or seal its 60 percent uranium stock under unprecedented International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scrutiny, in exchange for substantial sanctions relief.

This approach has not aligned with Netanyahu’s longtime position, which is that Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear weapons and is opposed to any talks that don’t lead Iran to agree to a “Libya-style agreement,” under which Tehran’s entire nuclear program — both military and civilian — would be dismantled completely.

Another report on Sunday, this time on Channel 13, said that officials in Netanyahu’s entourage have become increasingly vocal against the Trump administration’s recent decisions regarding the Middle East.

“There is chaos in the Trump administration, the right foot doesn’t know what the left foot is doing,” a senior official close to the premier said, according to the report. “I’m not sure it has anything to do with us at all. Everything works according to the president’s whims. Sometimes it works in our favor and sometimes it doesn’t.”

After the flurry of reports that the two leaders were at odds, Netanyahu took to social media to set the record straight, saying that his bond with Trump was “excellent.”

“What can I say — it’s not Trump saying it and it’s not me saying it,” Netanyahu said in a video update on his X account, adding that “the relationship is excellent.”

“I speak to him [Trump] from time to time. I won’t say every couple of days, but every two or three weeks, I talk to him. My people are in the White House — including just two to three days ago, they were there… We are currently blessed with a president and an administration that is very, very friendly. And we’re trying to coordinate both the big things, as well as the small things,” concluded Netanyahu.