Trump Peace Team Rebukes Gaza Genocide Accusations: ‘There Was A War Being Fought’

Speaking on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Trump negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff bluntly rebutted the charge of “genocide” that has been hurled at Israel as it fought its war of survival against the terrorist group Hamas.

Asked by host Lesley Stahl, “Would you say now, having been there, that it was genocide?,” Kushner declared, “No. No,” as Witkoff added, “Absolutely not. No, no, there was a war being fought.”

Kushner detailed what his team sees as the next phase after the cease-fire they arranged, which allowed Israeli hostages taken by Hamas to be returned.

“You can’t replace a corrupt government with another corrupt government,” Kushner said of Hamas. “So the goal here is to set up a transparent, good government. This can be very, very difficult to do, but we’re in the very early phases of trying to accomplish that.”

Stahl said, “Part of the plan is the reconstruction, the building, rebuilding of Gaza. And — you’re builders. You’ve been in real estate. As you said, it’s extremely complex. Tell us more about the plan and how much it’s gonna cost. Where is the money gonna come from? And who’s gonna award the contracts?”

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“You know, the estimates are in the $50 billion range,” Witkoff replied. “It might be a little bit less; it might be a little bit more. I happen to think that that’s not a lot of money in that region. You have governments that are gonna jump on in … you’ll see European participation and so forth.”

“We have plans already,” he continued. “We have a master plan already. And by the way — and Jared’s been pushing this and we’re working together on it — and I think if the world saw the progress so far they’d be pretty impressed.”

“By the way, none of the reconstruction money is gonna be going in until you have terror-free zones, because nobody wants to invest this money into a place where it’s just gonna get destroyed again by terrorism,” Witkoff elaborated.

“If Gaza is starting to show signs of being peaceful and not a threat to Israel, there’s nothing more that Israel would like more than to not have to have a heavy military presence there,” Kushner said.

Stahl turned to the antisemitism that has mushroomed since the October 7 Hamas massacre of more than 1200 Israelis, saying, “It seems that this war has created a rash of antisemitism everywhere.”

“Well, that’s unacceptable,” Witkoff replied.

“And it’s even going on in the United States of America,” Stahl pointed out.

“Well, that’s my point,” Witkoff said, then emphasized that President Trump agreed, adding, “That’s unacceptable. And that’s the president’s position.”