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Before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet endorsed the first stage of a peace deal with Hamas, orchestrated by emissaries of President Donald Trump, the hard-line Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir vented his frustration about the agreement. Just a day earlier, Ben-Gvir led a group of Jewish worshippers in prayer on the Temple Mount, the flashpoint site in Jerusalem that also houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, and called for “total victory” in Gaza. Now he was sitting with his fellow ministers to discuss how to bring to an end two years of hostilities that had reduced much of Gaza to a charred wasteland—but had left Hamas still standing.
At Netanyahu’s invitation, both Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s friend and special envoy, were in attendance. They had traveled to Israel from the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in Egypt, where they spent Wednesday toiling over a one-page document distilling the terms of an initial cease-fire and prisoner swap that could satisfy both Israel and Hamas.
Ben-Gvir turned to the two Americans and told them that they would never agree to such a deal for their own country—one that frees prisoners held for acts of violence against Israeli citizens and could eventually grant amnesty to members of a terrorist group responsible for the deadliest attack in the nation’s history. Witkoff, a New York real-estate investor tapped by Trump at the start of his second term to solve some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, responded by telling them how he forgave the family of the drug dealer responsible for selling the OxyContin that took his son’s life. The envoy seemed to be on the verge of tears, two people familiar with the exchange told us. Ben-Gvir was unmoved, saying the difference was that Hamas was unrepentant.
[Read: Ben-Gvir can’t bring himself to pretend]
Ultimately, the Israeli cabinet voted to approve the first phases of Trump’s plan—the pullback of the Israel Defense Forces and the return of all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. But the interaction captured how charged, and how personal, the path to possible peace has been for its key brokers, as well as the hurdles that stand in the way of a more durable peace in Gaza. Traditional diplomatic methods were eschewed in favor of family anecdotes, long-held assumptions thrown out by people better steeped in business than in international relations.
Trump was able to reach a breakthrough in peace talks by leveraging strong ties with Israel and with the Arab Gulf and Muslim countries that act as guardians of the Palestinian cause, officials on all sides of the conflict told us. Applying his bellicosity in service of peace, the president made dissent from Washington’s preferred path too costly to bear.
Already, a struggle is under way to assign credit for an end to the fighting and to determine on what terms a more lasting peace could take hold. Just over a year ago, President Joe Biden had proposed a similar deal to the one pitched by Trump, to no avail. Did Trump succeed by pressuring Netanyahu in a way that his predecessor refused to do? Or did Israel simply degrade Hamas so badly that the terrorist group had no choice but to agree? Both factors seem to have played a role. Did Arab countries sway Hamas, or did the monarchies push Trump to change his stance? Both, again, seem to have been factors, according to our conversations with 10 officials from the United States, Israel, Arab nations, and Europe, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing talks. Now the question is whether the swap of hostages for prisoners unfolds as planned, and whether this week’s diplomatic success will amount to anything more than a blip in the fighting.
“Haven’t the Palestinians suffered enough?” That was the question Trump asked in an August 27 meeting at the White House. The meeting, described to us by a participant, marked the beginning of the administration’s work on a 20-point peace plan. The gathering, held in the Oval Office, was attended by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, along with Kushner, Witkoff, and several other senior U.S. officials. Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Netanyahu, was also present for part of the conversation.
Kushner and Witkoff told the president that there was fatigue with the conflict on both sides, and that he could use his relationships with the Israelis and the Arab Gulf nations to end it. What he should do, they advised, is combine a process for the cessation of fighting with a vision for postwar Gaza into one big deal. Trump was enthusiastic about the idea. He expressed concern about accounts of hardship in Gaza broadcast on television; a U.S. official told us that the president has been moved especially by images of starving children and saw their airing on major international networks as a public-relations disaster for Israel.
Blair, Kushner, and Witkoff drafted the 20-point plan, which called for an end to the war and a delicately timed prisoner swap, while also delving into the future governance of Gaza: amnesty granted to Hamas members who lay down their arms; guarantees provided that “no one will be forced to leave Gaza”; support provided by the United States and Arab nations for an “International Stabilization Force” to secure borders and ensure the flow of aid; and authority vested in a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” overseen by an international body chaired by Trump, with a role for Blair.
About two weeks after the meeting, Israel launched an air strike in Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict, in a failed bid to kill senior members of Hamas living in the capital, Doha. The strike infuriated Trump and his associates, who saw it as a reckless escalation—as well as a tactical blunder, a “big whiff,” a U.S. official told us. The September 9 attack added to Trump’s frustrations with Netanyahu and to the president’s sense of urgency about achieving a peace deal. At the end of the month, Netanyahu called Qatar’s prime minister to apologize for the strike during a White House meeting with Trump that coincided with the announcement of the 20-point plan. Trump gave Hamas a deadline of October 5 to accept the deal or face “all hell.”
[Read: Israel attacks Qatar’s relevance]
U.S. officials and others involved in the negotiations said Trump’s volatility worked to his advantage. He appeared fundamentally unconstrained by U.S. foreign-policy shibboleths, whether about deference to Israel or red lines in Gaza. “It does make a difference when you’ve got somebody sitting in the Oval Office that everyone’s a bit terrified of,” said a person involved in the negotiations. It was a dynamic felt acutely in meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, held in September, as Trump’s proposal began to fall into place, this person said. The approach that international partners took was to state outright that they welcomed Trump’s plan—“That’s the first line,” the person said, and the most important one to avoid getting on the wrong side of the president. Trump seemed to return the favor to Arab partners who embraced his proposals, saying that he would not allow Netanyahu to annex the West Bank, blocking a long-sought goal of the Israeli right.
About a week after the announcement of Trump’s plan, intensive negotiations began at a convention center in Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort city on the Sinai Peninsula, the site of fierce Arab-Israeli battles of decades past. Delegations stayed at the nearby Four Seasons. Discussions between Israel and Hamas were mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey. Kushner and Witkoff got on a plane Tuesday to join the talks amid internal reports of progress. As a pair, Kushner and Witkoff complement each other, according to people involved in the process; Kushner is more attuned to the details, while Witkoff is affable and brings people over to his side.
During negotiations on Wednesday, consensus emerged about releasing the 20 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza all at once, according to a senior U.S. official. Several times, Trump spoke with the negotiators via speakerphone. Senior U.S. officials said Hamas was willing to cooperate because the terrorist group had come to see the hostages as a liability, rather than an asset. Its capabilities are severely degraded, and the group is said to fear complete annihilation absent a deal. Meanwhile, an important reason the deal was better for Israel than a similar plan put forward by Biden in 2024 was that it didn’t call for a full withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, but rather only to an agreed-upon “yellow line,” preserving their control over about half the enclave.
On Wednesday afternoon in Washington, an Associated Press photographer captured Secretary of State Marco Rubio handing Trump a note during a White House roundtable. “Very close,” the note read. “We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.” Trump explained to his audience that the note referred to ongoing negotiations in the Middle East and said he would have to leave “very soon.”
Trump is now set to embark on a victory lap in the Middle East. He’s scheduled to visit Israel on Monday, where he will address the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, to celebrate the release of the hostages. From there, he’ll make the short trip to the Sinai Peninsula, where Egypt will host a “very glamorous” regional summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, an Arab official told us. At least 10 “presidents and kings” will be in attendance, including leaders from the Arab Gulf, Turkey, and Jordan. Some European leaders are also expected to attend. It remained unclear if any Israeli leaders would be present for the event in Egypt. Asked if any Hamas representatives would be on hand, the official snapped back: “Of course not.”
An administration official told us there was an “exhaustion factor” that played a role in advancing the talks, with both Israel and Hamas struggling to sustain the fight. Israel has been strained militarily and economically over the course of the two-year conflict and its reputation has been damaged globally as the civilian death toll in Gaza climbed into the tens of thousands. Hamas, which has lost significant resources and manpower since fighting began, including its top military leaders, feared its complete destruction, the official said. Trump, too, was growing tired of the war, “starting to lose his patience,” according to the official.
[Read: Trump’s plan to finally end the Gaza war]
A lot has changed in the 13 months since Netanyahu rebuffed Biden’s pursuit of a deal. Israel killed Hamas’s leader and the mastermind of the October 7 attack, Yahya Sinwar, as well as his younger brother and successor, Mohammed. Lebanon’s Hezbollah has been severely diminished by Israeli strikes. The 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June—coupled with U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities—led to a significant dismantling of Iranian military capabilities. In each case, Trump has fully supported Netanyahu’s military operations.
But last month’s Israeli strike in Qatar, which was executed without any coordination with Washington, infuriated Trump and offered American negotiators leverage. “What the hell are you doing?” Trump asked the Israeli prime minister. The president felt that this was the chance to rein Netanyahu in before he went rogue, an administration official with knowledge of the discussions said. Early this month, the administration offered a coveted prize to Qatar: The tiny Gulf nation received security guarantees that the U.S. would defend it if it were to come under attack. The move infuriated Israeli hard-liners who believe that the sheikhdom has long granted a haven to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. That, officials said, and Netanyahu’s willingness to apologize to the Qatari prime minister in the Oval Office call, was enough to unstick the cease-fire talks.
“People feel this time is different,” the official said.
Negotiators have been extremely cautious about discussing what comes next. After all, the hostages are not out yet, and nothing is guaranteed in the work of peacemaking. But already today, Witkoff, Kushner, and other U.S. officials were sketching out what a stabilization force might look like, including which countries would take part and where it would be based. The ultimate objective, according to one U.S. official, is to make Gaza “a functional place” after two years of destruction. As soon as the hostages are out, U.S. Central Command and other regional militaries, including that of Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, and possibly the United Arab Emirates, will begin setting up a joint task force and the International Stabilization Force.
[Read: The problem with Trump’s cease-fire]
“The ISF will basically be able to hopefully replace the IDF,” one U.S. official said.
At least 200 American military personnel started arriving in Israel yesterday to begin advising on the formation and function of the ISF, officials told us. They stressed that the U.S. does not intend to have “boots on the ground” in Gaza. Still, the reallocation of troops to Israel, even in an advise-and-assist capacity, is noteworthy at a time when Trump has vowed to end U.S. involvement in wars overseas and curb the U.S. military presence abroad.
Israel sees disarming Hamas as nonnegotiable, but that will be one of the biggest challenges of any long-term deal. An Israeli official told us that some of the tunnels used by the group to hide, move weapons, and stage attacks still exist. The official said that international forces will now be responsible for destroying the remaining underground networks, but if they don’t, Israel will be forced to act.
Trump’s 20-point plan forbids any role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza. But after agreeing to the first phases of the plan, senior group members are already criticizing its vision of how the enclave should be administered, and have specifically rejected a role for Blair.
A lasting end to hostilities in Gaza could be a long way off, and many parties—not just Trump—will have a say in whether it’s ever attained. For his efforts, the president is keen to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, an award once bestowed on former President Barack Obama. But if Trump is going to get it, he will have to wait at least another year: The 2025 prize was announced this morning, on the day the cease-fire went into effect in Gaza. It went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, not to the American president.
*Sources: Mostafa Alkharouf / Anadolu / Getty; Jim Watson / AFP / Getty; Ma’ayan Toaf / GPO / Anadolu / Getty; Moiz Salhi / Anadolu / Getty.
