Sons Gone Before Their Fathers: Yetkov and a Touching Story with a Snake

During a meeting in Egypt, a rare human moment brought together a US Special Envoy for the Middle East and a leader in Hamas. They spoke about their shared painful experience of losing sons.

In a television interview, the US envoy explained that he sat next to the Hamas leader and offered him condolences on the death of his son, noting that he himself had lost a son, and that they were therefore members of a “very harsh club” of fathers who have buried their sons.

The US envoy also expressed a feeling of “betrayal” following a strike targeting Hamas negotiators in Qatar, stressing that the attack stopped the indirect negotiation track aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip. He indicated that this attack led to a loss of confidence in the negotiators and that reaching Hamas became more difficult.

He mentioned that the Israeli Prime Minister apologized to the Qatari Prime Minister for the attack, under pressure from the US President.